COUNTY Hall is set to be drawn into the escalating crisis over plans to install five incinerators at Nightingale Hall Farm. Cllr Ian Barker, second in command at Lancaster Council, is urging county planners to draft a full Environmental Impact Assessment into controversial proposals designed to meet the Government's BSE cull. He is also appealing for County Hall to back the council in opposing the plans and take into account stringent steps already taken to monitor the smell.

In a letter to county planning chief, Cllr George Slynn, Cllr Barker said: "If Fats and Proteins persist with its planning application for incinerators we must insist on the most rigorous procedures. Given the sorry history of smells and spillages associated with the plant nothing less will do."

The Government is appealing to local authorities up and down the country to speed up plans to dispose of carcasses and bonemeal. At the same time the BSE Intervention Board will not allow the disposal of contaminated carcasses until planning permission and authorisation from the Environmental Protection Act has been granted.

"The Government is clearly anxious to dispose of the huge amounts of meat and bonemeal and the thousands of carcasses in store following the BSE cull. I understand that they have inherited a serious public health problem and they have to tackle its aftermath. However environmental considerations must be paramount," added Cllr Barker.

Meanwhile an application by Fats and Proteins to burn tallow was deferred at last week's council meeting. Members of the Environmental Health and Cleansing Group postponed further discussion of the controversial matter until it could be heard at the policy making committee later this month.

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