AN auction mart has been told to clean up its act by environmental campaigners after complaints of strange smells.

Residents have been complaining of the smells coming from Clitheroe Auction Mart in Pimlico Road but a local health boss said concern over what was being burned at the site was "a storm in a teacup".

The auction mart is on the same stretch of road as Castle Cement, named in a Friends of the Earth report as one of the worst polluters in the North West for the release of health-threatening dioxins, and Clitheroe's ICI plant, which has been accused of releasing cancer-causing fumes into the air.

Lynda England, of the East Lancashire branch of Friends of the Earth, said: "We believe the incinerator has been used for the burning of plastic cups, which must have been giving off fumes.

"Both ICI and Castle Cement in Clitheroe have been named as air polluters and now we hear the auction mart has been burning stuff it wasn't meant to. It's just not good enough."

Ribble Valley Council environmental health officer David Hind said: "The auction mart incinerator has been used for three years without any problems. I visited the site and was assured nothing other than waste paper will be burned from now on.

"If large amounts of plastic had been burned, there would be thick, black smoke. This is really a trivial matter."

A spokesman for Clitheroe Auction Mart added: "An environmental health officer visited the site and was satisfied with what he found. He informed us we could continue using the incinerator, provided we burned only authorised materials. As far as we are concerned that is the end of the matter."

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