ENVIRONMENT bosses have clarified the position over a landfill site earmarked to receive hazardous waste.

Coplow Quarry at the Castle Cement works in Clitheroe was one of five sites in East Lancashire given the green light to become a hazardous waste site.

It was among 200 in England and Wales named by the government in a move to clarify exactly where toxic waste materials could be dumped.

But Coplow Quarry, where Castle Cement dumps kiln dust, is nearly full and residents fear nearby Lanehead Quarry might be used for the overspill.

A spokesman for the Environment Agency said hazardous waste materials were often mixed with household rubbish and dumped in general landfill, but under European rules this must stop by 2004.

Nicola Wurzbach, the agency's landfill directive coordinator, said: "Yes, Coplow Quarry is nearly full, but we have certainly not received an application for Lanehead Quarry and there is nothing new going on. We had to issue the new classifications as a legal requirement.

"Activity at Coplow Quarry will not be changing in any way and the new classification was really a formality."