§ 3. Mr. H. Hyndasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs what action he is taking on a letter from Rishton Urban District Council about atmospheric pollution from Whitebirk Electricity Generating Station.:
§ Mr. RipponThe district alkali inspector has explained to the council that no practicable means exist here for reducing the mistiness of the chimney gases or for preventing their down-draught under certain atmospheric conditions. The Central Electricity Generating Board has offered to try in future to reduce the load on the station under those conditions. This should help considerably.
§ Mr. HyndAs the Joint Parliamentary Secretary will be aware from his files, this is a long-standing complaint extending over some ten years. Since certain technical solutions have been suggested—and, I understand, accepted, apart from the financial difficulties involved—and as the local council was so incensed about this that it has refused to apply the Smoke Abatement Act in the area while 177 the atmosphere is being polluted by the power station, will the Minister give instructions for this matter to receive special attention?
§ Mr. RipponThe difficulty is that this is a very old complaint and there are really no economic solutions that would solve the problem entirely. I think the action which the board is going to take now will help, and I understand that during the summer extra equipment will be fitted to the dust-collectors and that that should improve their performance.
§ Mr. RipponThat is one solution which would be really uneconomic in the circumstances.