A PUBLIC inquiry starts tomorrow into contro-versial plans to build a £70 million biofuel power station at Avonmouth.

Developers W4B Ltd claim the plant would only use sustainable energy to save on fossil fuels and carbon emissions.

But furious campaigners say liquid biofuels such as palm oil would be used which would have a devastating effect on the environment.

City councillors refused planning permission in February after they decided that ecological issues outweighed planning matters.

It was this decision which has triggered the inquiry.

The councillors had been advised by planning officers that the source of the fuel was not a "material planning matter" and therefore could not be taken into account when deciding whether to grant permission.

Before the inquiry gets under way, the planning inspector will hear legal arguments to decide whether campaigners will be allowed to present evidence on the impact of growing biofuels.

The inspector has already ruled against this but will hear legal arguments from campaigners that their evidence should be allowed.

Rob Palgrave from Biofuelwatch said: "The use of palm oil and other vegetable oils for energy is already exporting environmental problems on a large scale.

"If this power station goes ahead then it alone will double Britain's share of this destructive industry. An area of land at least one and a half times the size of Bristol would be needed to fuel it."

Mike Birkin of Friends of the Earth, said: "Sustainable renewable energy on a large scale must be captured directly from sun, wind and water – destroying rainforests to produce a small energy contribution is unacceptable and allowing renewables subsidies to be spent on this would be a travesty.

"The Government is expected to clarify its policy soon – in the mean time we need to ensure Bristol is not heading in the wrong direction."

Mr Birkin is referring to subsidies paid by the Government which would reward projects like the biofuel plant despite fears it would have such a devastating impact on the environment.

One of the campaigners, Mike Andrews, a retired film producer with the BBC's Natural History Unit, said: "Two thirds of the income for the plant will come from Government subsidies paid for by the electricity consumer – some £36m a year.

"Yet campaigners can show that, far from reducing greenhouse gases, burning palm oil releases more than burning fossil fuels, and the Department for Energy and Climate Change has published a report that says that burning Malaysian palm oil fuel is worse than burning natural gas."

Bristol North West MP Charlotte Leslie has already written to Energy Secretary Chris Huhne urging a change in planning laws so the global impact of biofuel schemes could be taken into account.

The developers said they would only use palm oil from sustainable sources and only as a temporary measure until they could be supplied with jatropha oil. Jatropha is a poisonous shrub which grows near the equator and which could be farmed on semi-arable land which would otherwise not be cultivated.

The plant would be built on part of the former Sevalco site off Severn Road and generate enough electricity to serve about 25,000 homes.