A PROTEST was held at the former Bowhill Colliery about the "extreme hardship" caused by dust from the site.

Demonstrators are worried about the health effects of RWE npower renewables' storage and chipping plant in Cardenden.

And they gathered at the weekend to object to the firm's plans to extend operations on Saturdays.

Secretary of Cardenden Community Council, David Taylor, said: "Local residents gathered at the Bowhill site to demonstrate that it is the whole community which is being affected by the dust problems.

"Some may consider we are overreacting, but why should our community, and others, have to suffer this situation for the next 25 years, because of the inadequacies of RWE's Markinch biomass plant?"

New and reclaimed wood are converted into chips at the Bowhill base to fuel RWE’s combined heat and power plant in Markinch.

The fuel processing depot was built by site owners The Purvis Group, based in Lochgelly.

RWE's applications to allow operations on a Saturday between 7am and 5pm will go before Fife Council's west planning committee today (Wednesday).

They are recommended for approval despite a number of objections, raising concerns about more noise, pollution and dust and the impact on local residents.

The council report states: "The additional operational hours would not have any significant impact on the road network, road safety or residential amenity in terms of impact from dust and noise with the additional controls within the condition and the supplementary associated condition."

The issue was raised at the recent Cardenden Community Council meeting and Mr Taylor said the plans to extend operations on a Saturday were to "cover emergency situations, with up to an additional 20 lorry movements expected".

He added: "The main problem they anticipate is emergencies occurring more frequently, due to breakdowns at their biomass plant.

"This is caused by blockages in the fuel silo feed system and requires the material to be dug out and transported back to Bowhill, because there is no storage space at Markinch.

"The Bowhill site was never intended for this purpose and causes additional dust with lorries having to be unloaded and reloaded, as well as with the additional material being stockpiled, to a height of 20 feet, on site."

He continued: "The last breakdown was only a few weeks ago and caused extreme hardship to local residents by way of additional dust. "The company estimates it could have up to 30 'emergencies' a year.

"Although dust suppression equipment has been installed, its effectiveness is questionable."

Mr Taylor said they have "asked the company to consider relocating their operations" and the community council and the site's local liaison committee members were "collecting data on health related matters and other statistics to justify the move".

The Purvis Group did not wish to comment.

A spokesman for RWE Renewables said: “RWE takes its operational impact on the local community very seriously and we are disappointed to hear of the latest complaints.

"We have already spent £150,000 on dust suppression technologies and we will continue to work with the Bowhill Community Liaison Group to address any local issues associated with the processing site.

"This includes at our regular meetings, with one already scheduled for next week."

The liaison meeting takes place in Bowhill Community Centre on Monday, starting at 6.30pm.