A LEADING Pendle environmental campaigner will attempt to persuade a national pressure group to back an anti-fluoride campaign.

The Pendle Friends of the Earth (FoE) group is to second a motion to oppose compulsory water fluoridisation at the FoE annual conference in Leicester in August.

Brian Jackson, of Duke Street, in Winewall, co-ordinator of the Pendle group, hopes the move will be the start of a national campaign by the organisation against fluoride being added to drinking water.

Many health bosses believe fluoridation would improve the state of the nation's dental health but campaigners have criticised the idea of "mass medication."

Mr Jackson, 55, said: "I think this is a wonderful thing. A lot of people I speak to are against this mass medication. Local branches of FoE across the country have been supporting this idea.

"We need a national policy to make Friends of the Earth a stronger organisation and we want to join forces with other national groups.

"Fluoride would be there to treat the consumer and no one can give you medication without your consent."

He added: "We have a grotesque shortage of dentists and we need to change that and eat a more balanced diet to treat the dental problems, not to have people think they can eat what they want because there is fluoride in the water.

"The issue is, we believe, a gaping hole in Friends of the Earth's campaigns for better water quality and a direct national campaign is more than overdue."