Energy generated by a controversial incinerator planned for a Carlisle industrial estate will go straight into the National Grid and not to nearby businesses.

Permission has already been granted for an £80 million “energy from waste” processing facility at Kingmoor Park despite objections from those living on the Lowry Hill housing estate.

A meeting this week of the city authority’s Economic Growth Scrutiny heard that the revised facility planned for Kingmoor Park would not now supply energy directly to the district.

However, the council’s investment and policy manager told panel members that the development presented an “opportunity for a large advanced manufacturing company to benefit from the excess heat” created by the 230ft high chimney stack.

Bosses at Kingmoor Park have already attracted a several big names to the site, which forms Cumbria’s only enterprise zone and hosts more than 130 businesses.

Among the companies there is CAD Works Engineering Ltd, which designs and builds heavy-duty machinery for a UK and global market.

Meanwhile, DSD construction has secured planning permission to build its headquarters there, while Sytner (Mercedes Benz) has got the go ahead to build a new car showroom, safeguarding 50 jobs.

Residents had also been promised the plant would run on the latest biomass “gasification” technology which would create energy for use on the Kingmoor Park industrial estate with minimal environmental cost.

But applicants Fortum Carlisle Ltd and Kingmoor Park Properties Ltd now want to install an older style “rolling grate” incinerator which will burn the incoming materials at high temperatures.

The original planning permission will expire in October 2019 and the new permission will be valid until January 2022.

In theory, either permission could be implemented, subject to conditions, but the later application is more likely given that the original one will expire in two to three months.