AT the recent Ribble Valley Council special meeting to discuss the Environment Agency's latest Variation Notice to Castle Cement, concerning the burning of hazardous waste in their kilns at Clitheroe, there was more than two hours' debate, with continued reference to the House of Commons Environment Committee report on "The Environmental Impact of Cement Manufacture" published earlier this year.

When the council were deciding the way forward, Liberal Democrat councillor Frank Dyson said that an incoming Labour government would probably do nothing about it because the other lot, the Conservatives, had initiated the first two reports.

The reports were done as a direct result of continuous requests from local environment groups and Friends of the Earth in London to the chairman of the committee, Labour MP Andrew Bennett.

When members of the committee came to Clitheroe, to talk to local residents and visit Castle Cement, the Liberal Democrat member, Matthew Taylor, did not bother to make the journey.

He also did not put in an appearance at the two-day hearing at Westminster, when all interested parties gave oral evidence and were later questioned by committee members.

The Ribble Valley Liberal Democrats appear to be totally isolated from all that goes on at Westminster.

MORRIS HARGREAVES, Ribble Avenue, Grindleton, Clitheroe.

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