ONE of East Lancashire’s biggest employers has completed part of a £25million project to help safeguard jobs at the plant.

Hanson Cement, which has a base near Clitheroe, is spending £10m of the budget this year on new bag filters for the cement mills, a new gas scrubber for the main kiln stack and replacing ducting around the plant.

The work on the mill bag filter, which started in January, has now been completed, the firm has confirmed.

A spokesman said: “It was a complex engineering project that was carried out while the mills were still operating and has been a real success story with amazing results in terms of dust emissions.

“Our new filtration units are recording emission levels of less than 1mg/Nm3, which is a massive improvement.”