THE removal of a protest slogan daubed on a 650ft chimney stack at Didcot power station has been hampered by stormy weather.

Half of the slogan 'Blair's Legacy' - painted on the tower during last month's Greenpeace demonstration - has been removed by a team of specialist steeplejacks.

But since they started the work high winds and bad weather have hampered progress and it is taking longer than anticipated. Work is unlikely to resume until next week because of the stormy weather.

Steeplejacks have also struggled to remove the painted slogan with water and are now using electric wire brushes.

Npower, which runs the station, said the clean-up cost was not yet known, but that it had been included in the estimated £500,000 overall cost of the protest.

Npower spokesman Kelly Brown said: "What we are doing has health and safety implications. The steeplejacks are using a cradle harness and working from the bottom to the top."

She said work on the chimney was usually scheduled in the summer months.

She added: "The weather has really restricted us. Eight miles per hour is the strongest wind they can work in and since the slogan has been there the weather has been pretty bad."