STEELWORKERS and their families who have campaigned for justice for men who have suffered from industrial diseases say legal action is ‘long overdue’.

A law firm based in Watford is launching a group claim on behalf of hundreds of steel men from around the country and looking for more in the region.

Bill Thompson, who worked at Consett Steelworks for almost 30 years before it closed in 1980, was diagnosed as suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

But the 83-year-old, who admits he was a heavy smoker, said claims of health problems were routinely, and too easily, dismissed over lifestyle choices, like cigarette smoking.

He said: “It is long overdue, very much so. There are a lot of lads who had illnesses that went unclaimed and were lost along the way.

“They were dismissed by so-called experts. But the experts were on the management's side because of the amount of money that was going to be paid out.”

Mr Thompson, who lives in Rowley, near Consett, worked as a forth hand smelter and a precipitator, and was also chairman of the local Iron and Steel Trades Confederation branch.

The former Consett Urban and Derwentside District councillor said: “I welcome the action of course, any claim at all, because a lot of illnesses went unchecked and they got away with it for so long.

“At my age I have had enough of fighting now, I can hardly walk to the end of the garden, but I support anyone in doing that.”

Gillian Rolfe’s father Jackie Robson was a leading figure in a campaign to prove a cluster of throat cancer victims exists among former Consett steelworkers.

He worked as a crane driver, but died aged 75 in October 1999, six years after he was diagnosed with throat cancer.

Mr Robson was among the first to notice how many of his former colleagues were undergoing treatment for the disease at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital.

The campaign fizzled out but news of the fresh legal bid has given new hope to his family, and others who have suffered as a result of their working conditions.

Mrs Rolfe, 59, who lives in Delves Lane, near Consett, said: “Justice is long overdue and I think we should get an acknowledgement at the very least that men suffered. It is too late for my dad of course.

“This is not about the money. He could have lived a lot longer and you are not going to get that back, are you?”