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I hear word that David Owens, Cornwall Council's Head of Waste Management, is angry about the way he was forced to take the flak for the council's chaotic position at the St Dennis incinerator public inquiry, which opened last week.

The council's waste management department supports the proposed incinerator but the council's planners refused permission, hence the need for the inquiry. With his colours so firmly, and publicly, nailed to the pro-incinerator mast, David Owens is possibly not the most popular person in St Dennis.

But Mr Owens has good reason to feel hard done by. As a professional, he relies on the best available environmental, engineering and scientific advice in order to reach a judgement. It was the council which asked him to write to the planning inspector to articulate that judgement, while refusing to let him be called as a pro-incinerator witness at the inquiry and face cross-examination.

But environmental, engineering and scientific advice can take you only so far. Ultimately, waste disposal is a political issue - yet only a handful of (anti-incinerator) candidates campaigned on it during last year's elections. It is the long, sorry saga of political dithering, dating well back to the previous Cornwall County Council, which is responsible for the current council's schizophrenia - and the possibility of £200m additional costs if the private sector waste management contract has to be cancelled. It would be very funny if it wasn't so serious.

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio Cornwall tried repeatedly to get the council's political leaders before a microphone as the inquiry got underway. Instead, they ducked the invitations and ran for cover, leaving Mr Owens hanging in the breeze.