A POWER firm has asked for more time to start work on a new biomass plant at a landfill site near York.

Yorwaste Heat And Power Ltd secured approval from City of York Council in 2009 to build the facility at the Harewood Whin waste recovery and disposal site in Tinker Lane, Rufforth, but the scheme has yet to get under way.

The firm has now applied to the council for an extension to the planning permission granted more than three years ago, which has now run out.

The plant, including a chimney stack, would generate renewable energy from waste wood, which Yorwaste has said would mean 2,000 less lorry journeys having to be made each year in order to take the material elsewhere and would cut down on congestion in the area.