PLANS for an £8million investment in Castle Cement's Ribblesdale works at Clitheroe could be delayed after problems with plans for a sister plant in Wales.

The company had agreed to invest the cash in Ribblesdale if the go-ahead was given for a proposed expansion of its plant in Padeswood, North Wales.

Planning permission for the Padeswood scheme was granted but now the Welsh Assembly has delayed the scheme for further investigation and the plan could be called in for a public inquiry.

Castle has not yet said what the effect will be on the planned investment at Ribblesdale, which would mean improvements in environmental performance and production efficiency.

The company had initially planned to invest £15million at Ribblesdale, which would have seen an increase in production on its dry kiln. But an expected fall in demand for cement clinker saw the plans scaled down. Overall production capacity would fall, with wet kilns five and six being mothballed.

Completion of the investment programme was expected by the end of 2002.

It took more than a year for the Padeswood plans to be approved. Castle has said "misinformation" given out by a protest group set up to stop the expansion had contributed to the delay.

A spokesperson for Flintshire County Council, the planning authority for Padeswood, said: "We have been notified that it is to be called in.

"We are now awaiting the assembly's notification of the points that might be considered if there were to be a public inquiry."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.