Mr Burnett met South West Regional Development Agency chiefs in Exeter last week to demand further checks into the viability of the controversial project.
But the firm behind the project says an independent environmental impact study is still being compiled. The study would determine the timetable for the firm?s submission of a planning application for the plant.
Mr Burnett, in a meeting with Colin Molton, the RDA?s director of operations and development, raised his ?severe reservations? over the project and asked the RDA to carry out further checks into different aspects of the scheme, including its financial capability, the technology used and environmental impact of the proposed plant.
Mr Burnett said: ?I am pleased that at long last considerable rigour is going to be applied into the merits of this scheme. I will not tolerate the construction of an extravagant white elephant in my constituency.?
Mr Burnett said the RDA had committed to working with the community and to listen to the action group and parish council. It had also said it would ensure the findings went into the public domain.
Mr Burnett last year met Energy Minister of State Stephen Timms, who had acknowledged to the MP that such a large scale biomass plant was a ?gamble?.
Mr Burnett said the lead officer at the meeting had been ?very uncomfortable? because most of the questions he was asked about the scheme he was unable to answer.
Mr Burnett said the minister had also acknowledged that ?very few checks? had been made before a £11.5-milllion conditional grant from the DTI was made to the promoters of the scheme.
Among the concerns Mr Burnett raised at both meetings were the expertise and track record of the people behind the scheme, the unproven technology to be used, the agricultural capacity to supply the plant and environmental impact.
But Neil Devons, spokesman for the firm behind the project, Peninsula Power, said plans were moving forward, despite Mr Burnett?s calls for further checks. He said it would be unfair if the RDA changed the ground rules and asked the company to do more than it was asking others to.
?Everything is going extremely well,? said Mr Devons, adding that Peninsula was in the process of arranging meetings with the parish council and the working party l Continued from page 1
in the next two weeks as part of the consultation process.
Mr Devons said an independent environmental impact assessment into the proposed plant at Winkleigh airfield was still being compiled and when it was published, the firm would know if there were any issues it had to address.
He said the company?s timetable for submitting a planning application to Torridge District Council would be determined by the outcome of the environmental impact assessment and not by the views of Mr Burnett.
SWRDA spokesman John Taynton said: ?We had a very productive and constructive meeting with Mr Burnett to discuss public concerns. In addition, an undertaking was made to carry out some further work.?
He said: ?Obviously, it will take some more time, but we hope to do it as quickly as possible. There is no reason why this further work will delay any planning application.?
Mr Taynton said studies were being carried out in four main areas ? environmental impact, economic impact, the availability of biomass fuel and the market development for biomass crops.
The RDA had been heavily criticised at a public meeting in Winkleigh last month, after it was disclosed it had paid £338,000 to secure the 36-acre Winkleigh airfield site, but the agency says acquiring the site in no way commits it to the project.