A REVOLUTIONARY new incinerator is set to supply electricity to homes around the New Forest from next month, the Daily Echo can reveal.

Bosses at waste disposal company Onyx say the Marchwood Incinerator would start generating power in November.

John Collis, director of Hampshire Waste, a division of the Onyx Group, said both boilers in the eye-catching building, which is still under construction, had already burnt 1,070 tonnes between them in recent weeks.

Further tests and processes were still required to bring the unit into operation, he told the meeting of the New Forest Environmental Protection Liaison Committee last night.

But the processing plant was almost up and running, he said. He said: "We are programmed to generate electricity on November 20.

"Many things can affect that programme but that currently is our target. Once we are generating electricity we will be in synch with the grid and at that point we will start burning much more continuously."

Mr Collis also told the committee there would be further cosmetic work to the outside of the dome.

George Smith, a representative of the Environment Agency, followed up the talk with a presentation on how emissions from the new incinerator will be monitored.

Staff from the agency will inspect the plant at least 12 times a year, he said, as well as monitor results taken by incinerator staff and record their own data.

Incinerators produce electricity by converting heat produced by burning household waste into electrical power.