THE Freehold community staged a mass demonstration outside Nightingale Hall Farm on Monday, blocking off the road into the controversial plant.

The protesters, backed by local politicians including Lancaster's MP Hilton Dawson, are angry that the animal waste reprocessing plant is continuing to develop its Quernmore Road site.

They have called for Nightingale Hall Farm to be relocated and urged city council planners to throw out the plant's latest planning application.

The company, Fats and Proteins, have applied to build a new control room.

One of the organisers of the demonstration, Sue Paylor, said: "We had a good turn out because the whole community want this plant relocated. It's in the worst possible place and we're no longer willing to put up with the stink and the health risks."

"Every year it gets bigger with new plant and machinery and, the bigger it gets, the more unlikely it is to be relocated. The demonstration was a celebration of community vitality and showed our determination to get this plant moved elsewhere."

During the demonstration some off the protesters tried to speak with the management of Fats and Protein without success. They then occupied the road in front of the plant and turned away delivery vehicles.

John Whitelegg of the Freehold Community Association said: " We successfully closed the road and turned away the contractors.

"We also talked with Hilton Dawson about the issues and Labour group leader Abbott Bryning said he would vote against the plant's latest planning application at the committee on Monday. Nightingale Hall Farm has been a blot on the landscape for far too many years."

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