A CUERDLEY power station has been named as one of the worst climate polluters in the UK in a new league table.

Fiddler's Ferry has been listed fourth in the table compiled by Friends of the Earth.

The group says that the country's coal-fired power stations generate 35 per cent of our electricity at an enormous cost to the environment, pumping out up to three times as many greenhouse gases as new gas-fired stations.

Deni Newman, spokesman for Halton Friends of the Earth, which covers Warrington, said: "All these recent exposures, together with the statistics revealing the appalling health in the boroughs of Warrington, Halton and Knowsley indicate a real need to tackle seriously the subject of pollution.

"It is just not good enough for MPs, MEPs and local authorities to play the employment card, especially when a lot of companies are actually reducing staff but increasing output and, by association, pollution."

However, Fiddler's Ferry spokesman Pat Hemlepp, of American Electrical Power, says that the league table is 'needlessly alarming' people.

He said: "They seem to indicate that Britain should switch to natural gases. This happened in the US, but we are now facing extremely high natural gas prices and availability for home heating becomes a major concern.

"Friends of the Earth would be better off looking at different technologies that can control carbon emission and storage instead of raising alarm."