Planners are being asked to approve a gas-fuelled power station on land north of Carlisle – a short distance from the site of a proposed £80 million energy-from-waste plant.

Lowry Hill residents are already up in arms about a proposed 39 metre high waste recycling facility near Kingmoor Nature Reserve.

It would take waste from the across the county, converting it into huge amounts of electricity.

It has now been confirmed that a different company wants to build a gas “peaking power plant”, to include seven generators, four transformers, and associated infrastructure.

Kingmoor Power Limited hope to build the plant on a half-acre site at the south eastern edge of Kingmoor Park near Dukes Drive.

It would convert natural gas into electricity at times of peak demand.

This would usually be Monday to Friday between 7am and 10pm. Carlisle city councillor James Bainbridge, whose Stanwix Rural ward includes the land where the power plant would be built, said he understood why an industrial park was chosen.

“Carlisle needs more big employers,” said Mr Bainbridge.

“But I would imagine there might be some noise and I would hope that we can be given the assurances about that. When you have residents nearby you have to have a good working relationship.”

Meanwhile, opponents of the proposed Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) have claimed it would turn Carlisle into a “Waste City”, with a building so huge it will dominate the skyline for miles.

Campaigners have also raised questions about the potential health risks of burning waste on such a huge scale.

In a statement issued this week, they said of the proposed facility: “It [would be] bigger than the Civic Centre and atop the main building [will be] a 75 metre high chimney stack.

“The waste recycling plant is going to be at the back of the Lowry Hill estate. This is a new waste plant incorporating new untried technology using high burn hydrogen gases.”

The statement said an official of the company had confirmed the plant would emit “noxious” particles but he assured those present that those emissions would not exceed government set limits.

The group claim that these emissions would be blown from the chimney stack directly over homes and schools.

They fear that Lowry Hill, Newfield, Kingmoor, Cargo and the surround areas could all potentially be affected.

In the environment assessment statement submitted with the planning application, the firm behind the application said investigations had shown there would be “no likely significant effects” on air quality.

Nor would there be any significant effect on local ecology, according to that assessment.

The plant is being designed to take all the waste produced in Cumbria. Recyclables would be separated while the rest of the waste would be used to produce electricity – enough to supply more than 50,000 homes.

While some electricity will feed into the National Grid, some will be held back for businesses at Kingmoor Park.

Mary Campbell, of Stephenson Halliday, which is handling the application for the firm, said: “It will encourage new business into the area because they will get subsidised electricity.”

The power plant would also create approximately 40 new permanent jobs and more than 100 jobs during construction which could start next year with the plant operational by 2019.

Councillor Gareth Ellis said of the development: “I don't object in principle to the idea of a new plant. My concern is purely about the location.”

A planning application from yet another firm has gone in to the City Council to build three gas powered electricity generators at a location in Kingmoor Park North.

The three generators would be powered by natural gas and produce electricity for the local electricity network during periods of peak demand.