May 21, 1954

DESPITE the installation of a £20,000 dust extractor plant at a Redditch gas works, the problem of coke dust straying onto nearby houses is still unsolved, an official of the West Midlands Gas Board admitted on Monday.

People living near the gas works have complained for two years that clouds of coke dust have been blown by the wind onto their houses, spoiling washing left out to dry, spoiling crockery and food.

Four houses directly behind the gas works are the worst affected but other houses in the row are also covered in dust from time to time.

A letter to the chairman of the West Midlands Gas Board Consulative Council was read at a meeting of the Consulative Council in Birmingham on Monday.

It read: "The Redditch plant, as we know, is not only up-to-date but has been exceptionally well-equipped, with all the well-known devices for the extraction of dust.

"I suppose we have spent over £20,000 over the last five or six years on tackling the dust problem alone.

"Nevertheless, I must admit that the trouble has not been overcome but we engineers are taking energetic measures by studying each part of the plant to see what can be done."