During a heated meeting at Hartlepool Council on Wednesday night the plant at Seaton Meadows landfill, which would run on methane gas, was approved.

Mike Young, of Friends of the Earth, was asked to leave the meeting after raising concerns over safety.

But Alab Environmental Services, which operates the site, said the electricity generator would be safe.

Mr Young, a technical advisor, for Friends of the Earth was asked to leave the meeting because he spoke for too long and other people wanted their say.

The environmental group is worried that the electricity generator will be un-manned and will be run remotely from a base in Salford in Manchester.

'Global warming'

Spokeswoman Iris Ryder: "It is not just a case of a landfill site with household rubbish generating methane which is converted into electricity.

"That would be a good thing, but to have a site where there are no people monitoring what happens is worrying.

"Imagine if something goes wrong and someone has to travel from Manchester to check it out - what could happen in the meantime?"

But Ian Fenney, of Alab Environmental Services, which is a subsidiary of waste management firm Able UK, said it ran 42 similar, safe sites throughout the UK.

He said: "The engines are designed to run on gas and there is no potential for an explosion. It a green scheme and it will limit global warming."