THE CONTROVERSY surrounding Lafarge Cement Works took another twist this week when Westbury's county councillor called for the plant to be closed down.

Cllr Chris Newbury said he had become 'dreadfully weary' of the works and said it was no longer in the national interest for it to continue operating.

His comments come in the wake of the 'concrete cancer' scandal and the Environment Agency's decision to postpone the plant's recycled liquid fuel (RLF) trial while it investigated its management controls.

Cllr Newbury said: "It is time to start saying plainly that the Westbury Cement Works is such an environmental disaster and general disgrace that it should be closed down and the site restored.

"This should have

happened long ago if the promises of Portland Cement, in the early 1960s, had ever meant anything."

While Cllr Newbury sympathised with the campaign run by pressure group The Air That We Breathe, he said the bigger picture should be considered.

He said: "The greater problem for Westbury, for Wiltshire and for the wider world is surely not to fathom whether the noxious emissions of bulk acidic gases, heavy metals, and so

forth get marginally more or less noxious with certain fuel changes, but simply that the Cement Works is there at all.

"The Attlee government permitted it in the over- riding national interest, given the needs of post-war reconstruction, but the national interest is now quite different."

But Cllr Newbury's opinion has not gone down well with Westbury Town Council. Mayor Horace Prickett said: "I would dismiss it out of hand. The town cannot afford to lose Lafarge.

"While it only employs around 150 people directly, it employs four times that number indirectly. Closing it would create a big hole."

Lafarge's Westbury works manager Real Simard said: "We are surprised and disappointed by this call for the factory to be closed. This factory contributes some £10m to the local economy every year in wages, payments to companies and rates paid to the council.

"The operation of the factory also remains important in a national context.

"We hope to welcome Cllr Newbury to the works in the coming weeks to share with him information on the £10m investment programme we currently have under way to secure the plant's operation for the foreseeable future."