INVESTIGATIONS are under

way after thousands of litres of diesel escaped into a Guiseley beck from a wallpaper factory.

Johnsons Wallcoverings faces a large cleaning bill after up to 5,000 litres of fuel flowed from the Springfield Road factory into Ghyll Beck over the Christmas holiday.

Several people, including the manager of Aireborough Leisure Centre, contacted the fire service after smelling diesel that had escaped from the

factory's heating system.

Firefighters, the Environment Agency, and a specialist cleaning firm spent Tuesday and Wednesday last week mopping up the oil and trying to prevent it from flowing downstream.

By the end of Wednesday, most of the diesel had been cleaned up and any possible environmental damage limited because of the prompt action of firefighters from Rawdon Fire Station.

Dave Bennett, manager of Aireborough Leisure Centre, said he smelt the diesel soon after arriving for work at 8am on Tuesday.

"I parked my car and walked around to the front of the

building. I could smell something quite clearly.

"I looked at the beck at the back of the centre and the water was discoloured and the smell was very heavy in the air."

Sub officer Chris Clarke of Rawdon Fire Station said the smell throughout Guiseley was very strong and in some places quite nauseous.

He said it was believed oil had been leaking out of the factory's internal heating system overnight.

"A thousand litres were

flooding the factory floor and the rest of it had escaped through the doors, gone into a drain outside and into the beck."

Sub Officer Clarke said absorbent booms were placed around and across the beck to absorb the diesel but added it was detected as far downstream as Esholt.

"We covered the residue of diesel in sand which will be cleaned up, put in a special skip and taken to a licensed disposal site," he added.

He said the specialist cleaning company sucked the diesel from the beck and took it away to a special disposal site.

"Most of the diesel was trapped in the booms, and because diesel floats on the top of the water and wildlife is

dormant at the moment, the environmental impact is not as bad as first expected," said Sub Officer Clarke.

A spokeswoman for the Environment Agency said the impact on wildlife in the beck had been kept to a minimum thanks to the prompt actions of the fire service. "The diesel was located into two large pools and a contractor was working Tuesday and Wednesday to pump it out of the beck. It did not have the effect downstream that it could have done."

She added: "The company will pay for the clean up operation and we are still looking into it."

No one was available to

comment at Johnsons Wallcoverings.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.