Husband claims fuel plant caused wife's asthma

Betty Wheeler, of Bishop's Walk, Pebsham, was perfectly healthy until she and her husband Clifford retired to Bexhill. Now she is crippled by asthma.

Clifford is so concerned he considered advertising for local sufferers from respiratory conditions to get in touch. He hopes to collate available information in time to head-off Pebsham waste-derived fuel pellet plant operator Reprotech's bid to generate electricity by burning tip waste.

Mr Wheeler says: "My concern is for my family. Before we moved from North Wales my wife had never had a day's illness in her life. After being here a year she was struck down with acute asthma. Then my daughter-in-law moved to Pebsham Lane from North Wales. Bridie had never suffered from asthma before. But after just a year she has gone down with it.

"An awful lot of people we know of in this area are suffering from respiratory conditions. A little girl of 11 near here has asthma so bad she has to have stomach injections. What is going on . . ?"

Mr Wheeler says his wife's condition is now so severe she has twice had pneumonia and is totally dependent on a nebuliser to help her breathing.

Mr Wheeler is concerned that despite protestations that processes like fuel pellet production produce no harmful effect on the environment, the full facts are not known.

Fuel pellet production does not involve burning the waste at the site but heat-treating it. The chimney at Pebsham was installed in order to reduce the risk of odour and emits steam, not smoke.

But Mr Wheeler argues: "Steam is white. Often what comes out of that chimney is black."

He is concerned about the prospect of the proposed new process which will burn waste to produce electricity. If other local people who have respiratory problems can write to us perhaps we can present some facts."

Mr Wheeler lives at 4 Bishop's Walk.