PROTESTERS fighting plans to dump chemical waste in Winsford Salt Mine believe a new development offers a last-gasp chance to defeat the controversial project.

Mine owner Salt Union Ltd has applied to the county council to get two conditions removed from a 1998 planning application - conditions which appear to prevent the dumping of any other waste than that produced by mining.

And protest group Residents Against Mining Pollution - RAMP - sees these conditions as a crucial block to Minosus' plans to use the Bostock mine as a storage facility for the inert and non-radioactive, non-flammable waste.

The county council has sent out hundreds of letters to residents inviting responses to the plan to remove the two conditions from the 1998 application and RAMP is urging people to respond.

A spokesman said: "They want these two clauses taken out and we have written to the county council to strongly oppose this.

"I think this new development is relevant because this planning application was in place before the Minosus application went through.

"We are always optimistic, believing there is a real opportunity to stop the dump and we cannot see any other reason for the clauses to be removed.

"And don't forget that more than 2,000 letters were sent to the public inquiry opposing this dump in the first place."

However, Minosus boss Roger Shaw is still confident that his company - who are part owned by Salt Union - will still get the go-ahead for their plan to store the waste in the mine.

He said: "This planning amendment is really a technicality and doesn't suggest that there is anything wrong with our entirely separate planning permission granted last July.

"We are confident we will get the Environment Agency's IPPC permit to go ahead within a month or so of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister reissuing us the planning permission."

However, Minosus' permission was quashed - although with a view to being re-issued - last month because of a "legal technicality" related to an environmental statement as a condition in the planning permission.

A spokesman for the Salt Union issued a statement saying: "In December 2002 the Salt Union applied to Cheshire County Council to remove two particular conditions from its current planning permission in order to harmonise its content with the planning permission granted to Minosus by the secretary of state in July 2002.

"The step was taken before the Secretary of State decided - on the basis of a legal technicality - to quash the Minosus permission in January 2003."

rfraser@guardiangrp.co.uk