A CONTROVERSIAL application to build a biomass power plant at Winkleigh should finally be determined by Torridge District Council next month ? but the council says it is still unable to set a precise date for the decision. The council this week announced it is now in a position to confirm that the planning application for the £43-million scheme will now be considered at a special meeting its plans committee, hopefully at the end of March. However, officers cannot give the precise date and venue for the meeting at this time because they say they have to ensure that ?all legal and logistical issues raised by staging this special meeting have been covered?. The council says it hopes the meeting will be held in Winkleigh but no final decision has yet been taken. Winkleigh resident David Lausen, who has been at the forefront of the campaign opposing the proposed development, said he was relieved the long-running process was nearing its end. ?I am pleased it is going to be determined, because there has been a lot of stress for people over the last three years,? he said. ?It is a very complex proposal. ?It has been very frustrating waiting but I can well understand how it has taken Torridge District Council so long to get to this stage.? West Devon and Torridge MP Geoffrey Cox said: ?I welcome this news because we need to bring some kind of conclusion to what has been a very unhappy saga.? Mr Cox said he hoped the district council will take into consideration the ?overwhelming view of local people that this project really should receive an emphatic refusal.? Applicants Peninsula Power say the pioneering project will draw considerable international attention to North Devon as a whole and contribute towards addressing climate change. Energy crops which would be used to supply the biomass plant would include short rotation coppice and miscanthus grass. The application to site the biomass plant on land at Winkleigh airfield was originally submitted to the council in October 2004, with new and revised information from the applicants then issued twelve months later.