A £5 MILLION "washing machine" aimed at tackling pollution in Clitheroe has become tangled up in fresh controversy.

Castle Cement was given the go-ahead to instal the wet scrubber on kiln seven at its Ribblesdale works in Clitheroe last year.

It was one of several pollution-beating measures introduced by the firm after residents kicked up a fuss over its use of the controversial Cemfuel.

It was hoped that the state-of-the-art scrubber, which the firm claims will make its Ribblesdale plant one of the cleanest in Britain, would be up and running by the spring.

But the Environment Agency wants the company to meet tough pollution limits reducing emissions of sulphur dioxide from the plant by 90 per cent by June.

Castle Cement said today that the June deadline took no account of delays often encountered on major engineering projects. Ian Sutheran, general manager at the Ribblesdale works, said: "Although we remain totally committed to meeting the deadline for installing the scrubber, we cannot be certain that unforeseen problems will not cause some sort of delay during the commissioning of the new plant.

"We are therefore left with no option than to appeal against the emissions deadline on technical grounds,"

Discussions between Castle Cement and the Environment Agency have been taking place since last October, but are said to have broken down after the two parties failed to agree a suitable timetable.

The firm is proposing that the new levels should come into effect 12 weeks after the satisfactory commissioning of the scrubber.

But a spokesman for the Environment Agency insisted that the June deadline would have to be met, even pending an appeal.

The appeal will be heard by an inspector from the Department for the Environment either at a hearing or by written representation.

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