A pensioner has told a public inquiry examining council waste plans how hundreds of tonnes of highly toxic ash from an incinerator was spread on allotments.

June Wolfe, 77, travelled from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to tell the hearing in Lewes how ash from the Byker incinerator was scattered at allotments and on some footpaths.

Mrs Wolfe, who used to garden at one of the plots affected, said: "What is left in the incinerator to be spread is absolutely horrible stuff.

"It was a really lethal mixture of material that was spread on our land in Newcastle."

At least 2,000 tonnes of mixed fly ash and bottom ash produced from burning waste was scattered at 44 allotment sites over a six-year period.

Fly ash is highly toxic and should be treated as hazardous waste. Less dangerous bottom ash is recycled for use in construction projects.

Newcastle City Council and Contract Heat and Power, which operated the burner, were fined in 2001 because of the pollution.

Campaigners point to the Byker scandal as evidence burners are poorly regulated and claim councils cannot guarantee there would not be similar incidents in Sussex.

Mrs Wolfe, giving evidence for pressure group Defenders of the Ouse Valley and Estuary, said nobody knew the material was dangerous until dead worms began appearing.

Samples were sent to a laboratory in Germany, which discovered dangerously high levels of dioxins and heavy metals in the contaminated soil.

Mrs Wolfe said: "It was horrifying when the results came back. Every little path, every little plot had this ash on it."

She said only one of the allotments had been fully decontaminated and there had been an increase in the number of deaths among people who worked the contaminated allotments.

Brighton and Hove City Council and East Sussex County Council propose building an incinerator at North Quay, Newhaven, as part of waste plans being examined at the inquiry.

The councils insist modern incinerators are safer than their older counterparts and that a burner at Newhaven would be properly regulated.

The inquiry is scheduled to continue until the autumn.

Wednesday August 6, 2003