AN under-fire government agency has gone back on its pledge to fund part of the promotion of a controversial biomass scheme proposed for Winkleigh.

The South West of England Regional Development Agency has said it will not now meet part of the costs on the production of an information leaflet distributed by the company behind the proposed biomass scheme, Peninsula Power. SWRDA says information in the leaflet was ?not sufficiently impartial?.

West Devon and Torridge MP John Burnett said although the agency had backed out of paying for the production of the leaflet, he was still ?incensed? that the cost of an environmental impact assessment and other studies would be coming from public funds.

Mr Burnett said: ?I am still incensed that the environmental impact assessment is being paid for by the RDA. They don?t have any business making use of public money to support any particular business.?

Mr Burnett said he had raised this point in a recent meeting with the Government Office of the South West and was also prepared to raise the matter in parliament.

The MP had also been due to hold a meeting with SWRDA and two representatives each from Winkleigh Parish Council and the DUST pressure group (Devon Under Serious Threat) last week, but this has been postponed to the end of the month because not all the studies had been completed.

The leaflet went out earlier in the year to thousands of residents in Winkleigh and the surrounding community and prompted a strong riposte from the DUST action group which was unhappy with many of the claims made it.

The agency said: ?The purpose of originally agreeing to fund the leaflet was to provide the public with impartial information about the proposals.

?Peninsula Power produced the leaflet without consulting the agency over the content and as a consequence it was felt the leaflet was not sufficiently impartial and it was decided it would be inappropriate for the agency to fund it.?

However, SWRDA is funding studies looking into the technical, environmental and economic impact on Winkleigh as well as a biomass, feedstock and market development study. These will be made available to the public.

Peninsula Power said they ?understood? SWRDA?s view that they could not be perceived to be promoting a particular project when they were taking a non-partisan position on the issue.

Peninsula Power have said a planning application for the scheme was likely to be lodged with Torridge District Council at the end of this month, following a delay in finalising some of the reports.

The company have said they will pay for a public exhibition due to be held in Winkleigh to outline the advantages of the scheme.