CEMENT firm bosses in Clitheroe have submitted plans to build an area for the burning of waste meat and bones as an alternative fuel.

Castle Cement announced its intention to fire Kiln 7 at its Ribblesdale works with waste meat and bonemeal from the animal rendering industry earlier this year.

Now councillors are set to discuss the plans following the submission of the application.

The firm has already held detailed discussions with Government pollution watchdog the Environment Agency, Lancashire County Council and Ribble Valley Borough Council about its plans to burn animal waste.

The company, which is at the centre of a long-running row over its use of the toxic waste fuel Cemfuel, has also distributed a newsletter to residents living within five miles of the works about its plans.

The company wants to switch to the Agricultural Waste Derived Fuel (AWDF) from coal and, if given the go-ahead, could be burning up to 1,000 tonnes of it a week within a year.

Castle Cement general manager Gareth Price said: "We have submitted our application to test-burn the fuel to the Environment Agency this week.

"If this application and the planning application get the go-ahead, we hope to construct the plant as soon as possible and be test-burning the fuel by next year."

The fuel will contain no BSE-infected material and is already being used safely at cement firms in Europe, company bosses have claimed.

So it can burn the fuel, Castle Cement wants to construct a tanker, loading area and storage silo at its West Bradford Road works.

AWDF is produced by sterilising and grinding abattoir waste, a material otherwise disposed of in landfill sites. It is fibrous in appearance and feels like damp sand.

The Environment Agency has said Castle Cement will not be allowed to use the fuel until a rigorous programme of trials has been drawn up, including checks on releases to air, land and water.

Environmentalists, including Friends of the Earth, have welcomed the move, claiming it is better than burying the waste in landfill.

The plans have been submitted to Ribble Valley Council and are due to come up before the council's planning and development committee next month.