ELDERLY residents on a Newton Aycliffe estate say dust from a pile of ash at a neighbouring factory is making their lives a misery.

About 90 people in the Clarence Green area have signed a petition complaining about the heap at the Plasmor factory, just a few hundred yards from bungalows.

Pensioner Joan Willmer said: "They are building this great big spoil heap. When the wind blows it covers all the gardens. If anyone has any washing out it has to be taken in and washed again.

"The quality of life for the local residents has been disturbed and it has caused an awful lot of upset and annoyance, and not just for the people of this estate."

Fred Jackson, who organised the petition, said a similar heap was removed four years ago after protestations by residents.

He said: "I have lived here for 49 years and we have always accepted a bit of dust, as long as they keep it at the trading estate side and not next to the houses."

Mr Jackson, who has also written to Prime Minister Tony Blair about the problem, has sent the petition to Sedgefield Borough Council and Great Aycliffe Town Council.

"We want the heap down," he said.

A spokeswoman for Sedgefield Borough Council's environmental health department, said: "We have only just been made aware of this problem and are in the very early stages of looking into it on behalf of the residents of Clarence Green."

A Plasmor spokesman declined to comment at this stage, but said residents had been told that it was a temporary measure and the ash would be removed in the next few months.