A ROW has erupted over claims that 500 Clitheroe residents have signed up with a law firm for a legal action against Castle Cement.

The proposed no-win-no-fee legal action is being spearheaded by Sentley Wilson Bowen, which said its door-to-door inquiries had revealed an apparently high incidence of respiratory disease and chest complaints in the area.

But angry Castle Cement bosses today said claims that output from their Clitheroe plant was affecting the health of residents were unfounded and they would fight any legal action tooth and nail. The proposed court action comes just weeks after East Lancashire director of public health Stephen Morton said there was no evidence to show that respiratory disease in the Ribble Valley was being caused by output from Castle Cement's Ribblesdale Works.

But representatives of Sentley Wilson Bowen have been in Clitheroe for some months signing up residents for a proposed legal action alleging ill-health caused by output from the Ribblesdale plant.

Senior partner at the Doncaster-based firm Sentley Wilson said: "Over 500 people have signed up for action against Castle Cement alleging a variety of complaints caused by the output from the company's Ribblesdale Works and we are meeting very shortly with representatives of Friends of the Earth to view their documentation collected over several years on this matter.

"We are confident hundreds more could sign up for the action and have a panel of health experts lined up to undertake in-depth research."

But Lynda England of the Ribble Valley Branch of Friends of the Earth said: "No members have signed up to the action and none of us want to. If people want to sign up to it it's their business. We're keeping well out of it."

Ian Sutheran, general manager at Castle Cement's Ribblesdale Works, said: "These people are on commission to sign up names to take Castle Cement to court on a no-win-no-fee basis.

"I want to make it very clear that the claims I believe these people are making are wholly untrue and will be vigorously contested by Castle Cement."

Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans said: "I am not a fan of no-win-no-fee litigation, or so-called ambulance chasers, but the fact that 500 people have signed up for this action does seem to indicate that concern about this matter is perhaps more widespread than generally accepted."

Castle Cement was given the go-ahead to burn its controversial toxic waste fuel, Cemfuel, in 1992, by what was then Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Pollution - now the Environment Agency, which today declined to comment.

Sentley Wilson Bowen has five partners and offices in Nottingham, Grimsby and Chesterfield.