Organ firm's discord over EU law

A County Durham firm has struck a sour note with Euro officials who want to ban the use of lead in pipe organs.

Harrison & Harrison has been in Durham since 1872 and has provided pipe organs for Durham Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, amongst others.

But a European directive due in July will ban the use of lead solder in new or repaired pipe organs.

The firm said purists will shun organs made with modern alternatives and wants the UK government to intervene.

The company said its 50-strong workforce is at risk from the move, aimed at reducing the amount of lead from commercial waste which is found in landfill sites.

Red tape

But company spokeswoman Katherine Venning, who is also the president of the Institute of British Organ Building, said most old organs are recycled and would never find their way into landfill sites.

The firm wants the UK government to support it being exempt from the new law.

The company has the support of North East MEP Martin Callanan, who said: "We are in the ridiculous situation where the European Commission is solemnly saying that organ builders will have to apply for an exemption from the rules on the use of lead if they wish to continue to produce organ pipes containing more than 0.1% of lead.

"This is at precisely the time when we are supposed to be cutting red tape, not adding to it.

"Conservative MEPs have now written to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry to ask him to ensure that the government interprets the directives to exclude organ pipes from its provisions entirely.

"Lead pipes help give a unique tone to a pipe organ, they don't end up in landfill and they have never been seen as having any adverse environmental effects."