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There has been increasing coverage of this vital issue in the press, both local and national. We, therefore, felt it appropriate to repeat here some of the comments and letters that have appeared together with relevant newspaper reports

The local papers, especially The Chronicle; The Evening Leader; and The Daily Post, are to be complimented on the neutral position they have carefully taken on all aspects of this highly emotive and very important debate.

Where relevant, we have also listed here reports by CANK  on events as they unfold and important letters that have been sent in.

Visitors E-Mails
Please help us...... I am scared for my 2 children.
A most moving e-mail received from a housewife living near the Blue Circle cement plant at Westbury where tyres are to be burned.
A timely reminder of what might await us here if permission is granted for Castle Cement's kiln

'councils intend to sell off prime school sites and re-build the schools on toxic landfill sites. '
Mail from  South Wales.

 International Use Of Substitute Liquid Fuels Used For Burning In Cement Kilns
    'French and Belgian cement kilns account for about 90% of the SLF burned in continental European cement kilns. In 1996/97, France used
    262,000 tonnes and  Belgium 200,000 tonnes while seven other countries used 50,000 tonnes between them.'
    CANK Comment:
    We wonder why the German company Heidelberger Zement, Castle Cement's parent company and the second largest producer of cement in
    Europe, so keen to burn SLFs at it's UK plants including Clitheroe and Padeswood, does not burn them to any extent in Germany.
    Perhaps the German government is more enlightened than the British and won't let them?!

News
    Letters
    The Evening Leader
    (28th January 2002)
    Kiln saga is 'far from over'

    (4th February 2002)
    Don't let money talk at Padeswood incinerator

News
The Evening Leader
    Report
        Incinerator plan on hold over fears  (15th February 2002)
        "It would be extremely foolish for politicians not to listen to the people - and to do so would be arrogance of the highest order."

   Letters
        Open invitation to public to visit controversial cementy factory (11th February 2002)
        A letter from Tony Allan, General Manager, Production - Castle Cement Padeswood
        'One wonders  whether  the writers would be prepared to call their central heating systems 'gas incinerators'

        In a spin over Castle (15th February 2002)
        'He (Tony Allan) says that recent readers letters were composed of 'spin'.
        Well he should know as he seems to be the master of it.'

        Janet Ryder AM
        Jill Evans MEP
        "Burning toxic waste is not acceptable as it clearly compromises public health. The National Assembly has a duty to adopt a precautionary
        principle, and  should put the onus on the company to prove that their proposals won't put the health of local residents at risk.

A personal observation by the CANK Webmaster

Article
Daily Telegraph (6th March 2002)
    Blair's arrogance and dishonesty leads me to the Conservatives                               (this link to the Telegraph web site may require you to register to read it)
        Richard Balfe - 23 years a Labour MEP - explains why he has defected to the Conservatives
        "The Byers and the Mittal scandal are symptomatic of a deeper malaise within the Labour leadership - a contempt for Parliament, for
        democracy and, ultimately, for the truth."

A Fairy Story
     the incineration 'house of cards' might start to crumble

A Letter to the Prime Minister from a local Labour Councillor
    'either the Labour Party leads the way and harnesses the groundswell that is building over the mismanagement of the disposal of the
    nation's domestic and industrial waste material, or it will pay the price of ignoring it.'

A THOUGHT FOR YOU
    Mr Allan (Castle General Manager, Padeswood) has said that building work will commence within two months.
    BUT the Environment Agency have said that they will not be near issuing any authorisation until the Autumn.
    Would you start a multi-million pound project unless that authorisation, in acceptable terms, were a forgone conclusion?

           HOW DOES HE KNOW!

    'No rules or regulations imposed on the plant by the Environment Agency is going to stop these pernicious chemicals from going directly into
    the local  environment'

        New York Times (6th March 2002)
        Soot Particles Strongly Tied to Lung Cancer, Study Finds
        'The bad news is that fine-particle air pollution is even more toxic than we thought before'

               In particular
                    The new plant will have a neutral visual impact in spite of being 50% taller and 20 times more bulky than the existing buildings;

                    Castle employees praised for attending but no reference made to the large numbers of local people there;

                    Dr Richard Roberts (by his own admission, not a toxicogist ) CV praised,  but the evidence of DrVyvyan Howard, the eminent and
                    internationally renowned toxicologist, dismissed.

           'that ........ is subjectivity for you!'

         Residents mysteriously locked out.

        Anti-Campaign Flyer left under car windscreens at the meeting:- 'Campaign Allowing New Kiln'
              annotated with CANK comments
                    'It is only those with something to gain: Castle Cement ; local and national government; and their departments,

Open Door
    Those local to Padeswood will have received the latest edition of 'Open Door': Castle Cement' 'community newsletter'.
    Once again this company chooses to insult us.
    Whilst extolling the virtues of the proposed kiln in reducing greenhouse and acid rain gases - indeed commendable, NO MENTION is made, yet again, of what
    really concerns everyone here: dioxins (for which there is no safe lower limit); heavy metals and ultrafine particles.
    It is these extraordinarily toxic pollutants that the new kiln WILL PRODUCE and which all available evidence suggests WILL HARM people.
    CANK has received a copy letter from a resident which is posted today and which encapsulates local feeling:
    'we are in the fortunate position of being able to move away from the immediate area which is what we will do once the kiln is completed.'

    Interesting also, that Tony Allan who, as general manager of Castle Cement at Padeswood runs  the worst dioxin polluting cement kiln in the UK and, during his
    tenure, has seen it climb from 11th to 7th worst UK dioxin polluter overall, is to be chairman of the North Wales CBI.
    What kind of message does this give to the local population?

Public Inquiry Report
    Now available on the Internet
    The full Report; Assessors Report; and the Decision Letter are available.
    The Report is lengthy but the Decision Letter gives an overview of the Inspector's and the Welsh Assembly's thinking on this matter.
    Particularly revealing, in the Decision Letter,  are:
        Paras 8 & 11 dealing with health.
        Heavy reliance here on Dr Roberts' superficial and widely critisised health report which relied exclusively on Castle Cement data.
        Note also the use of the word 'material' relating to harmful effect, without any definitions.
        Para 13
        This whole campaign is about the use of hazardous waste yet the Welsh Assembly fully endorses the Inspector's decision not to hear such evidence fully and
        in detail on that issue.

    Note:(June 2002)
    A CD containing Castle Cement's responses to these questions is available - free - from CANK. Simply E-Mail Us for your copy.

News
    Report
    The Chronicle, Mold & Buckley Edition (June 14th)
    Factory is critisied over appeal
    'Castle Cement has been accused of holding up measures to cut emissions from its existing Padeswood plant.'

    The Observer (16th June)
    Dark heart of the American Dream
    An excellent article on the effect of combining sympathetic government and big business to the detriment of ordinary people - sound familiar?

Report
    Greenpeace International
    Incineration: The Burning Issue
    An outstanding summary of the implications and concerns surrounding this most controversial issue
    'There may be high tech incinerators but there is no such thing as a non-polluting incinerator.'

    A brief but, nevertheless, essential precis of the current situation.
 

IPPC
    Waste fuels form centrepiece of cement firms' IPPC applications (ENDS April 2002)
    but
    [Castle, Rugby & Blue Circle] 'have failed to justify their emissions against the benchmark for the "best available techniques" BAT'

    Castle's Response to the EA's 119 Questions in available on CD. E-Mail us if you would like a free copy.
 

Breast Cancer Clusters may start in Childhood
    'a novel study by geographers and epidemiologists at the University at Buffalo. Where a woman lives at birth and puberty may have an impact on
    her risk of  developing breast cancer later'
    'the possible link between breast cancer and early environmental exposure to potential carcinogens'

    'we have concerns regarding adverse health effects. There are many types of compounds in our domestic waste, which contain numerous
    chemicals. It does not make sense to burn these chemicals which will combine in the furnace, releasing unknown compounds, whose composition
    and effects we know little about, into the environment.'