FEARS about health risks from BSE have led to the formation of a new pressure group in Lancaster. ABSEIL (Action against BSE in Lancaster) will campaign to stop Nightingale Hall Farm burning animal fat at its rendering plant and to have the plant relocated. ABSEIL activists say the group has been formed as a direct result of Lancaster's national importance in dealing with the consequences of the BSE crisis.

"We 're taking up the work which started with the 'Fight The Furnace Campaign' which we felt was losing energy," said Freehold resident Sue Paylor.

"The new group will seek to stop Lancaster being used as a dustbin for animal waste and will campaign to have the plant itself shut down. We also believe that burning tallow from animals, some of which are diseased, adjacent to our local primary school is unacceptable and is a serious departure from good standards of public health protection."

The pressure group will be affiliated to the national group 'CATS' (Communities Against Toxics) which campaigns to prevent local communities from the dumping of chemicals, biological pollutants and substances damaging health.

Sue Paylor added: "Not only does Lancaster have a very large animal waste processing plant in Nightingale Hall Farm, with the long standing problems of smells, lorries and spillages on the roads, but now it must take animals that have been slaughtered under the Government's scheme to eradicate BSE. These animals are collected over a wide area and transported to Lancaster in a way that concentrates BSE infectivity in our community. This disease is still not fully understood but it does have scientifically proven links with the fatal human disease CJD."

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