Green row on limestone
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• Derbyshire councillors warn of an "environmental disaster" if hauliers win a contract to deliver 70 loads of limestone a day.. to the Ratcliffe on Soar, Notts power station.
Matlock councillor Alan Bond is calling on PowerGen, which owns the site, to put the 300,000 tonnes of limestone a year on to the rail network. The limestone will be used to reduce sulphur emissions. But it It goes by road "it would mean solving one environmental problem and introducing another", says Bond.
He wants the contract, which is due to start in 1994, to be awarded to a quarry in Wirksworth, which already has its own rail link.
If a quarry in Buxton is given the work the limestone would have no rail link for the 120km journey south to Ratcliffe on Soar. The extra trucks would affect villages along the A6 which are already suffering from heavy commercial vehicle traffic, says Bond.
PowerGen says it is assessing tenders from a number of quarries, including Matlock-based Tarmac Roadstone Eastern. which will be responsible for transporting as well as supplying the limestone: "There will be rail unloading facilities. but this does not necessarily mean all limestone will be carried by rail," says PowerGen.
Its competitor, National Power, which is due to start a similar limestone process in 1996 at Drax, North Yorks, is opting for rail because of 'environmental benefits".
Matlock councillor Martin Burfoot fears that PowerGen will opt for the cheaper road option: "We have written to Government through our MP and have not been given a great deal of encouragement."
He believes hauliers have an unfair advantage over rail because "they do not pay the full cost of the damage they cause to the roads".