A VISIT to an organic composting site in Hampshire could trigger parliamentary plans for cars fuelled by garden waste.

Staff at Down End Composting Facility in Down End Road, Fareham, took Southampton Test MP Alan Whitehead on a fact-finding tour of their facilities as part of his personal bid to boost recycling. He plans to take his findings back to the environmental committee he chairs.

Mr Whitehead, chairman of the parliamentary renewable and sustainable energy group, said: "In other countries trimmings, vegetable matter and the like are used to make biofuel to put into cars.

"It's really what I'm particularly interested in looking at and I've enjoyed seeing the process in action."

The site has just added a £190,000 state-of-the-art compost aerator to its stock of equipment which will allow garden waste from residents and businesses to be turned back into soil in five months rather than six.

Peter Mills, who manages the facility for Onyx Group, expects to increase its capacity from 15,000 tonnes to 25,000 tonnes a year over the next 12 months.

Hampshire recycles 26 per cent of its waste and is one of the best performing counties in the country.