THERESA Robson's otherwise excellent report (LET, May 17) of the County Council planning committee's consultation meeting in Clitheroe on the need for Castle Cement to apply for planning permission to burn hazardous waste, omitted to mention three points raised:

1. That although 'Cemfuel' represents only one per cent of its operations, according to general manager Ian Sutheran, it yields £1.1 million in profit, or 10 per cent of Castle's total profits. In so stating, he effectively gave the lie to Dr Boarder's recent suggestion in the Financial Times that banning the burning of 'Cemfuel' would force Ribblesdale to close.

2. Castle's circumvention of the Bedford Protocol, a set of guidance rules in connection with cement manufacture, which preclude the use of cement kilns for incinerating hazardous waste where there is plume-grounding. Requiring Castle to apply for planning permission would presumably also trigger the Protocol requirements, something which Castle could hardly be expected to welcome. 3. The inadequate briefing of councillors by officers, referred to by district councillors Waller and Sowter, particularly the omission of any mention of the scathing criticisms of the Environment Agency by the Commons Select Committee.

This, above all, confirmed the urgent need to take decisions on the burning of waste of any kind out of the hands of the Regulatory Body and into the planning arena, with the attendant protection, so long denied, of a full environmental assessment.

The unanimous demand of all those speaking at the meeting, the parish and district councils especially, was for planning permission to be required. This, together with the undisputed fact that plume-grounding is endemic here, are arguments which Lancashire County Council cannot ignore!

J D MORTIMER (Mr), Green Drive, Clitheroe.

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