11th April 2009
Now that the Lafarge Cement Works is officially mothballed maybe it is time to review what positive and negative benefits have accrued over the four plus decades since the plant first opened in Westbury in 1963
For those people who were around in 1963 the economic picture looked a little like today, gloomy with the laying off of a thousand plus rail workers in the Westbury region. Blue Circle employing nearly a thousand workers was seen as the industrial saviour for this region. Since that time Blue Circle and Lafarge have been a major contributor to the economic stability of this town even though the workforce has shrunk over the years. Pensions and pay have created a loyal workforce over the years and both companies have a reputation well deserved for looking after their workers.
This economic angle to this industry has been one of the major obstacles to progress being made on pollution abatement at this plant and others like it. Local politicians have been reluctant to push too hard as they fear the old chestnut that the company would be made too uneconomic and might close down.
With the passing decades came more awareness about the dangers of the poisons coming out of incineration processes and in particular the chemical signature of the dust particles. Thousands of studies have linked these poisons to heart and lung dysfunction, incidents of cancer and other illnesses but the official line is not to rock the boat too far. This was always the reason I became involved in this issue. Health and health protection. The Government has always sponsored those scientists and those universities that looked for other reasons for poor health quality around incineration processes and they too have been part of the problem.
You do not have to look too far to see this same ostrich like behaviour with the growth of incinerators all over the country under Private Finance Initiatives ( PFI). That is why The Air That We Breathe Network was a founder member and executive operative in the United Kingdom Without Incineration Network (UKWIN)
The strength of public feeling on this issue of health has been always focused on the cement plant and for years white dust was constantly covering cars, before the installation of the electrostatic precipitators at a cost of £9,000,000 in the 1990s. Unfortunately although the visual dust problem had been dealt with the very fine dust particles could not be trapped by this process and they are in health terms the most chemically active and therefore the most harmful potentially to health. Every meeting organised by TATWBN has been well attended with hundreds of people actively engaged and members of our group.
Now when I look at the cement industry I see an industry that will have to change radically due to its unsustainable carbon footprint otherwise it will not assist in the carbon reductions needed to deliver the national 80% carbon reduction figure by 2050. It is not impossible as magnesium silicate cements can replace existing commitments to chalk and limestone carbon based cements and also have the added bonus of absorbing carbon into the product.
Finally as an NGO of some 15 years experience with both Government (local and national) industry (local and national) and the Regulator (Env Agency) it is this groups experience which has been echoed through our network that the Regulator has been the worst culprit in the scenerio. To explain. The Agency has rules and regulations that get updated through the years and they should be independently doing their job. Unfortunately they too get pressured by National government to be lenient and let the industry be self regulating ( sound familiar to the banking theme ?). The result has been that communities around the country have been let down and consequently this industry has been the most confronted by people over the past two decades, involving legal cases that almost always side with the industry and Government.
I have fought for a different way forward but the suspicions run deep and public consultation is still a lip service affair rather than a learning curve. I would remind industry and Government that you cannot proceed without the support of the community within which you reside. A lesson that has not been learnt yet
David Levy
Chair TATWBN
April 2009
