SHUT the pits! Uneconomical! No demand - look at the smoke belching from the chimneys.

We heard it all in the Margaret Thatcher era.

What does the mining community think of the new age (the Cemfuel saga) - the men who did their best to hang on to their jobs and a living?

The same effort used in closing the mines and breaking the miners' strike should now be used to put more safeguards into clearing up the mess or getting rid of the system at the Clitheroe Cement works burning Cemfuel.

Coal doesn't seem so bad compared with the concoction burnt and blasted into the atmosphere at Castle Cement - reportedly from acid sludge, tars, oil, paint and carbon. It seems anything goes.

Sure, they say it is safe - but admit (by and large) nothing rings enormous alarm bells. That is, to me, an admission that a danger to health does exist, however small.

I used to love to sit on a winter's night in front of a roaring coal fire. That was quite a while ago, but I would sit uneasy if I were in close proximity to the cement works' chimney.

K SOWERBUTTS (Mr), Southwood Drive, Baxenden.

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