Residents have noticed for years that when you leave your car for a few days  in the residents spaces alongside the flank wall of the CEMEX plant on Rufford Street it gets covered in a layer of grime.  When you park elsewhere in the street the problem is not so bad.  We had long thought that this was related to the huge construction works for the CTRL alongside the East Coast Main Line behind the plant.  But that work stopped many months ago but the grime on the cars continued.

I raised the dust issue with the CEMEX environment team who visited last month.  They brushed off a dust pollution problem ‘the materials we use are wet they are unlikley to cause dust’.  I took this at face value as i didn’t have any direct evidence.  But some neighbours are having their roof done and from the top of the scaffold i noticed t he dust cloud shown in the photo – several times over a couple of days. 

The photos (taken today at 1140) show clearly a billowing cloud of blown dust emerging from the top of the big square sided silo above the concrete making works (click on the photos to enlarge them).  I assume, given the process, that this is cement/concrete powder being added to the mix and there is a persistent fault with the machine.  There was a brisk breeze blowing at the time but the dust was clearly being driven up and out of the tower by air from below. 

I am not an expert on this sort of thing at all but this sort of thing simply shouldn’t happen in a residential area.  Very poor, will raise with CEMEX.