Environment Agency chiefs are to adopt a new-style "consult the people" approach to deal with Drax Power Station's controversial request to almost treble its sulphur dioxide emission levels.

The Agency said today it was treating the request as a "substantial" variation to the station's existing authorisation licence.

Regional pollution manager Don Ridley said they were proposing to introduce a new voluntary consultation procedure. This would include two public meetings within the next 10 weeks, as well as broadening consultation to places as far as York, Leeds, Goole and Doncaster.

Drax's flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) plant, which filters out 90 per cent of the acid rain-producing sulphur dioxide emissions, has been shut down since January 28 after cracks were discovered in booster fans.

Last week, station bosses asked the Agency if they could increase the emission levels from 100,000 tons to 270,000 tons a year while the FGD equipment is out of action.

The request triggered howls of protest from green campaigners Breach, who said National Power was wanting to emit more sulphur dioxide than it did before installing FGD.

Mr Ridley told the North Yorkshire Area Environment Group that the Agency had been working on a new-style mechanism to deal with controversial applications.

He had taken a lot of "flak" over the petcoke trial burns at Drax with the public feeling they had not been adequately consulted.

They wanted to avoid sparking an even bigger storm. Mr Ridley said that without FGD, Drax would use up its annual sulphur dioxide limit of 100,000 tons by as early as the end of June. He said: "We need to relax the limit, but the station has to do all it can to minimise releases while the FGD filters are down."

The first public meeting, sponsored by National Power, would be held in the visitors' centre at Drax station at 7pm on March 19. The second meeting would be hosted by the Agency, so it could authorise the variation by the end of June deadline.

Because Drax's chimney was 850ft high, emissions tended to concentrate in areas up to 30 kilometres away such as York, Leeds, Goole and Doncaster. Drax's head of environment, Jeff Gyllenspetz, told the meeting that without increased emission levels, the station would be shut down by law.

Both North Yorkshire County and Selby District Councils said they welcomed the new-style wider public consultation.

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