Committee member Cllr Arnold Woolley said the third-party monitoring will involve independent laboratories carrying out detailed analyses of air, soil and water around the site, where the new Kiln 4 will be commissioned this summer. He said: “We set up a subcommittee to examine the possibility of getting our own checks done, and found that it would cost around UK£130,000 over three years. We have contacted all the relevant town and community councils to ask them to contribute. “We think the Environment Agency’s approach is inadequate.”
However, an Agency spokesman stressed continuous monitoring was carried out at four locations and that additional checks were not warranted. He said: “At this stage the Agency does not believe that any additional ambient air monitoring is necessary to assess the impact of the operations of the Castle Cement works and that no further expenditure by the Agency or Castle Cement could be justified. We will continue to review its own monitoring requirements and will discuss these in detail with the Castle Cement Liaison Committee.
Danny Coulston, general manager of the Padeswood site, added: “We feel this is not really necessary. We are tightly regulated by the Environment Agency and already have approximately 20 types of monitors. “The new Kiln 4 improves emissions by 90 per cent, and our new permit for that kiln is one of the strictest in Europe.”
The new kiln is being built following a public enquiry into the plans. This finally ended last month following consultations with groups, statutory bodies and local people. The Agency concluded emissions would not have an unacceptable impact on human health or cause significant pollution and a permit was given, subject to strict monitoring conditions.
