The legal team representing anti-incinerator campaigners, which includes Ed Miliband's wife Justine Thornton, has urged Boris Johnson to reject the controversial plans.

The Mayor of London is expected to make a decision on whether plans to build an incinerator in Beddington Lane can go ahead in the coming weeks.

The legal team representing campaign group Stop the Incinerator has written to Mr Johnson on behalf of its client, calling on him to reject the plans, which it says are not justified.

Your Local Guardian: How the proposed incinerator could look by night

How the incinerator could look by night

Sutton Council has given planning permission for waste management firm Viridor to build the plant on part of the existing Beddington Lane landfill site.

The plant will take up to 302,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste from Sutton, Croydon, Merton and Kingston every year and burn it to create energy that should be distributed to neighbouring homes in the form of heat and electricity.

Mr Johnson has the final say as the site is in land reserved as open space.

The planned facility will occupy three acres of the 93acre landfill site with the rest being converted into a country park.

But campaigners against the incinerator are angry because the agreement that gave permission for the landfill site to be built said it would be decommissioned by 2021 and the whole area would be made into a park.

Your Local Guardian: incinerator-protest.jpg

Campaigners protesting against the plans outside Merton Council

The legal team, made up of counsel Justine Thornton, Labour leader Ed Miliband's wife, and solicitors Sue Willman and Charlie Dobson, has written to Mr Johnson detailing its concerns about the proposal, including the loss of wildlife habitat, the effect on air quality and the breach of policy in building on Metropolitan Open Land.

Ms Willman said: "Viridor has simply failed to demonstrate special circumstances to justifying large quantities of burning domestic and commercial waste on metropolitan land (equivalent to the green belt).

"Viridor have said that the incinerator is justified because it will provide heating to the local area but our evidence shows that other incinerator projects have failed to deliver in providing the costly infrastructure to do this."

Mr Johnson is expected to make a decision on the plans in the coming weeks.

If he gives permission, the plant could be operational by 2017.