A HIGH Court battle over Castle Cement's use of the controversial Cemfuel looks set to go ahead.

Lancashire County Council's development control sub-committee yesterday stood by the decision of officers that Cemfuel was a fuel and not a waste.

They also approved a £5m pollution-busting plan to install a state-of-the-art gas scrubber at Castle Cement's Clitheroe plant.

Clean air campaigners want fuels such as Cemfuel classified as waste. Firms will then need planning permission to burn them and will be subject to tighter controls.

They recently outlined their case before county councillors at a meeting in Clitheroe and are to take their case to the High Court.

County Coun George Slynn told yesterday's meeting that the matter was the most difficult he had been asked to consider since joining the council in 1981.

His call for the Environment Agency to hold an "informal public inquiry", where the concerns of residents could be "fully ventilated in the public arena", was backed by councillors. Campaigner Georgia Gill, of Clitheroe group Air Watch, said afterwards she was not surprised by the outcome, but extremely disappointed.

She said: "Obviously the councillors are prepared to defend their corner in court. The inquiry is nothing more than we have been asking for for years, but we believe a formal inquiry before the Department of the Environment is the way forward."

The meeting heard the wet scrubber would be the first installed at a cement works in the country.

"It represents the best available techniques not entailing excessive cost and is the best environmental option," councillors were told.

CLEAN air campaigners in Clitheroe have been praised at two council meetings.

The Ribble Valley Council's community committee agreed with protesters that the burning of Cemfuel should require planning permission.

Coun Bert Jones said: "If it hadn't been for the protestors, all would still appear rosy in the garden. Their persistence has kept this issue alive and they are to be congratulated."

And at the county development control sub-committee, Coun Slynn praised clean air campaigners for the "quality of their contribution to the debate".

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