IF the government's pollution watchdog thinks the concern in the Ribble Valley over Cemfuel will go away with their latest blessing for it, they are mistaken.

That is because, in effect, what they are saying is that the burning of waste chemicals at Castle Cement near Clitheroe is safe as long as the smoke from the chimneys goes up in the air.

For they are pressing the firm for an urgent solution to prevent the smoke getting to the ground.

One does not have to be a scientist to conclude that if smoke from burned Cemfuel it may be harmful at ground level, it can hardly be less so if it is hundreds of feet up in the air.

And has not this sort of thing been the trouble throughout the Cemfuel row - that every reassurance that Ribble Valley residents have been given by HM Inspectorate of Pollution has had some sort of qualification attached to it?

At the very least, these latest findings suggest that valley MP Nigel Evans is right to call for the burning of Cemfuel to cease until the problem of so-called plume-grounding from the cement plant's chimneys is totally cured.

But, for sure, the row will never cease while every sanction for Cemfuel continues to include uncertainty.

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