A NEW "waste technology park" could produce fuel for Clitheroe's Castle Cement works, Lancashire County Council has revealed.

The proposals for dealing with Lancashire's waste could lead to some of it being incinerated, despite the council's original incinerator proposals being abandoned in February this year.

It is proposing a new waste technology park at Leyland, south of Preston, which will be the first of several facilities for processing waste in different parts of the county.

And the new facility could produce waste which could be burnt as an industrial fuel. The authority is still debating which type it wants to build and no decision about where this "fuel" would be burnt has been made.

But according to Lancashire County Council, the cement factory at Clitheroe requires large amounts of fuel and the plant's owners, Castle Cement, have been looking for low-cost fuels.

Green County councillor Jonathan Sear said he wanted the new facility to have the least impact on the environment and on the health of local people.

He is due to question Coun Brian Johnson, who has responsibility for waste, at a full council meeting later this month.

Coun Sear said: "Whatever we do with waste will have some impact on the environment, so we need to reuse what we can and maximise recycling. But it is very important that the right technology is chosen to process what is left or we could end up with incineration by the back door. There is some pretty nasty stuff mixed up in household waste which would create toxic pollution if burnt. The Council should be clear about what would happen to dangerous chemicals in things like batteries and PVC before it decides what type of facility to build.

"The county council's decision to scrap its incineration plans showed that it was listening to local people and was taking the environmental concerns seriously. I hope it will choose the safest environmental option this time too."

A spokesman for Castle Cement said: "We have a number of different fuels we are looking into but we have not had any direct discussions with the county council."