And the pupils from Invergordon Academy, Alness Academy, and Tain Royal Academy are also being recruited to stage a demonstration outside Highland Council headquarters in Inverness when the matter comes up for consideration on August 18.

Health fears are one of the biggest concerns of opponents to the proposed incinerator, on the site of the old aluminium smelter, and the effects contamination could have on future generations.

Leading the protests are a group calling themselves Invergordon Incinerator NO to Waste, and on Tuesday and Wednesday it set up its stall in Invergordon High Street during the school lunch hour so pupils could make their feelings known.

The teenagers turned out in scores to sign the petition "Invergordon Youths Say NO", hoping to get their message across that they do not want the planned incinerator and waste transfer plant on their doorstep.

One of the petition organisers and a member of the Invergordon Says No group, Tina McCaffery, said: "We have been actively campaigning from the adults' point of view and at our strategy meeting last week, I proposed we get the local youth involved as well.

"I am 40, and in another 40 years' time I probably won't be here but the youngsters of today will, and they will have to live with the legacy of the incinerator if it goes ahead. They are going to be affected by it and will have to live with the toxins emanating from it which can also be passed on to the next generation after them."

Tina added she and other members of her group had approached a number of senior pupils at Invergordon Academy and asked them how they felt about signing the petition and letters, and they all said yes.

She said they were hoping to get in the region of 1,000 signatures from the area's young people to present to the council to show the depth of feeling amongst the younger generation to the proposal.

Tina continued: "They are not stupid. They want to protect their future and what is rightfully their's. They are entitled to have the area free of contamination problems and free of health problems later on."

She pointed out that assurances were given at the time the smelter was first mooted that there would be no contamination from it but claimed history showed humans and animals were struck with mysterious illnesses, including cancer, in the locality.

"These incinerators could be just as bad because they have not been going so long," she said. "And don't forget they will have 230-metre chimney stacks putting out who knows what. It's huge."

She also warned that, if there was a breakdown at the plant, the expected 24 waste lorries a day would be parked up from the Tomich junction on the A9 to the incinerator site and the "stench will be appalling".

"We are trying to get all the teenagers within Invergordon, Alness and Tain involved in this," she said. "They are wonderful young folk and they deserve the opportunity to have a voice, and that's what this is about."

A spokesman for Combined Heat and Power, the company behind the incinerator proposal, rejected claims it would cause contamination in the area.

He said: "These plants are completely safe and have been operating for over 30 years without any problems.

"This type of plant is monitored by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency under the tightest regulations in the industry."

l.ford@spp-group.com

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