Families win fight for cancer probe.

Minister agrees to study of possible link to health risk.

GOVERNMENT minister Peter Main MP has called for a study to be carried out into any link between high voltage power cables and a cancer duster in Northampton.

The announcement by the energy minister came yesterday after years of campaigning by parents of four children who fell victim to leukaemia while living in Pembroke Road on the Spencer housing estate.

Three families travelled to Westminster, in a bus sponsored by the Chronicle & Echo and York’s Coaches, to meet energy minister Mr Hain at the Department of Trade and Industry.

Mr Hain told the families, two of whom lost sons to the disease, the year-long study would look at the impact on homes of electrical sub-stations.

It would be funded by the Department of Trade and Industry and would also focus on other power sources, such as the powerful electricity cables which ran down the back of the gardens where some of the families lived.

Steve Williams, whose son, 10-year-old Stuart, died, said: “News that a study will be carried out has given all of the parents fresh hope.

Mr Williams, who now lives in Glebeland Road, Dailington, said: “I’ve always said the disease was connected with the power cables on the railway line and we are very pleased the energy minister has listened to us and has ordered this report. It has helped make the years of hard work worthwhile.”

Four children were diagnosed with leukaemia in the early 1990s and two of the children, Stuart Williams and 11-year-old Matthew Gee, died.

A 50-year-old man, Barry Williams-Wynn of Pembroke Road, also died of leukaemia in 1992.

All four affected families have since been moved from the area on compassionate grounds by Northampton Borough Council.