Gasification firm IET had agreed with North Somerset council to build a demonstration plant that would run until December 2002.
But prolonged negotiations mean it has missed this target date, and the company now wants a 10-year lease from the council.
Managing director Chris Pope said: “In the middle of last year we were ready to move forward and asked them to issue the lease. When it, it included a notice to terminate in one week. When you are putting 2 to 3 million into a project you cannot do that”.
By May this year the company pitched for a longer lease because deals struck by competitors meant it now needed a more substantial facility.
Kent and Derbyshire county councils had meanwhile awarded contracts to Brightstar, which operates an Australian gasification technology.
Mr Pope said: “It is now not enough to demonstrate for six months because the others will be up and running.”
IET will build some small development units in Spain and the UK, but the 16,800 tonnes per year facility at Weston “remains fundamental to our plans,” he said.
A report by council environmental contracts manager, Steve Allen last month noted that construction of these developments plants “may well impact on the need for the gasification plant at Weston-super-Mare and any urgency to complete the project.”
Mr Pope said he was surprised by this remark, and still intended to proceed.
The council said the firm’s latest proposals would be examined in the context of its new waste management contract, though a council spokeswoman said she was, “pretty confident” the project would go ahead.
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