RESIDENTS living near the Lafarge cement works in Northfleet have welcomed multi-million pound improvements at the site.

Lafarge Cement UK is spending £8m renovating two kilns at its Northfleet Works to reduce the amount of toxic emissions.

Work has already started on the project which aims to improve the reliability of the kilns which have the capacity to make up to 1.35m tonnes of cement every year.

The site is due to shut in 2008 but the plant’s environmental filters and the kiln fuel feed system have already been renovated and more improvements to the cement conveying systems are due for completion in the next 12 to 18 months.

Chairman of the Northfleet Springdove All Residents’ Association Alan Cooke told News Shopper: “We as local residents welcome this work and hope Lafarge continue to improve even further.

“We have suffered from falling cement and dust for years, not only from the chimneys but from the often exposed conveyer system which aggravates chest conditions and may be causing us long-term damage.” Lafarge Cement’s Northfleet works manager Mike Oliver said: “It must be unusual for a company to be investing this amount of money in a factory which will close in around five years’ time.

“This just underlines our commitment to trying to bring the factory to a better level of environmental performance for the remainder of its life.”