Amber Online

Embattled people living near Monkton cokeworks have set up an action group to fight pollution which they claim is slowly killing them.

Hebburn was the first town in Britain to operate a 100% smokeless zone policy. Householders can be fined for burning coal but National Smokeless Fuels daily pumps dirt into the air which they breathe. Bitter residents say appeals to their councillors, MP, Euro MP, the government and government health watchdogs have done nothing to curb the pollution. Growing resentment about the conditions in which they live first united residents early in the 1980s, when they successfully applied for rent rebates. Hebburn Residents' Action Group was officially formed in the face of NSF plans to build a power generation plant in 1987. Chairwoman Jennie Shearan said she was staggered by the number of people pressing to sign a petition against the expansion. Since then the group has harried South Tyneside Council, demanding a full-scale probe and support for action against the Alkali Inspectorate. Local councillors do not live on the estates near the works. And the council has refused to give cash aid to three HRAG members travelling to lobby the EEC in February. It claimed the trip was "political". "It's not political looking after your health and the health of future generations," said Jennie. "Someone's got to do something and we won't rest until it's been done."