PRIME Minister Tony Blair and his wife are being urged to intervene in the row over Thrupp Lake at Radley.

Cherie Blair has been invited to visit the old gravel pit, which is at the centre of an increasingly bitter row over plans to dump thousands of tonnes of spent fuel ash from Didcot power station.

Save Radley Lakes campaigners have written to Mrs Blair, and a group of children will visit 10 Downing Street on April 5 to hand in a petition to the Prime Minister.

The children, accompanied by SRL members, will then visit Mrs Blair's legal chambers to deliver a letter outlining the case against dumping the fuel ash and inviting her to visit Thrupp Lake.

In the letter, SRL asks Mrs Blair for support and advice on an "urgent matter" in Oxfordshire involving environmental and human rights issues that the group says threatens civil liberties. SRL is asking Mrs Blair for her personal support and urges her to bring the matter to the attention of the Prime Minister.

The letter says objections to activities at the lake have been to no avail and complains about a "draconian" High Court injunction covering the area around the lake. The injunction forbids press and public from photographing any RWE npower employees and contractors, and outlaws demonstrations and protest camps within half-a-mile of the lake.

SRL has started an e-petition on the Prime Minister's petitions website. So far, it has attracted more than 500 signatures. It calls on the Prime Minister to "stop foreign-owned utility companies from ruining the British countryside".