THE prospect of a rubbish-burning incinerator being built in Lancashire is more likely than ever, after councils failed to meet new waste-reduction targets.

While Lancashire County Council's targets were missed by just 0.2 per cent, council chiefs in Blackburn with Darwen have admitted they are 'way off' making the same reductions.

Today, the area's two councillors in charge of waste reduction warned: "Get behind us or we'll have to build an incinerator."

Both councils have signed up to the Lancashire Waste Strategy, created when the EU announced plans to slap steep fines on authorities which continue to landfill most of their waste.

Although some landfill dumping will be allowed in the future, recycling or other forms of waste destruction are expected to deal with the majority of rubbish.

At the heart of the plan is the recycling of 40 per cent of the 785,000 tonnes of rubbish Lancashire produces by 2005.

The strategy says this can be achieved through better education, more recycling facilities and revamped waste centres, or tips.

Coun Andy Kay, in charge of waste control as part of the regeneration portfolio at Blackburn with Darwen Council, said today that his department was 'way off target' this year.

And Coun Brian Johnson, in charge of regeneration at Lancashire County Council, said: "We are close but it is still not good enough."

"The start of a campaign is supposed toe the easy bit. It will be over the next 12 months where people have to keep thinking to themselves that if they do not want an incinerator they must keep recycling.

"It is up to the people."

The rubbish-burning incinerators would solve a lot of Lancashire's problems for waste production because there would be no limit to how much they could burn.

But opponents of the idea say research around similar incinerators across Europe show people living near them are more prone to getting cancer or having children with smaller genitals.