7 months ago
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The Nuclear Free Local Authorities have written to the senior director at Nuclear Waste Services with responsibility for community engagement in the GDF search areas asking him to make it plain in future that it is only local Councils that can choose to withdraw from plans to developing a nuclear waste dump in their area, rather than local communities.
Councillor David Blackburn, Chair of the NFLAs English Forum, has written to Simon Hughes, Director for Siting and Community Engagement at the NWS, to point out that previous statements made by staff and NWS publications have erroneously claimed that communities can choose to withdraw from the process at any time, when government and company guidance clearly states that it is only higher-level local Councils, which are engaged in the process, and Nuclear Waste Services itself that can do so.
Commenting Councillor Blackburn said: “Current practice conflates councils with communities because the so-called Community Right of Withdrawal can infact only be exercised by councils not by communities. The continued practice of claiming the contrary has led to great frustration amongst residents of the communities effected by the proposals, as it also conveys to the outside world the impression that these residents must be happy with the process or surely they would have exercised their ‘right to withdraw’?”
Councillor Blackburn has asked Mr Hughes to ensure that, in future, company statements and publications convey the true facts. He concluded: “Nuclear Waste Services has stated that it wants an open and honest dialogue with communities and stakeholders. I would suggest that one small step they could take to build trust would be to ensure that in future staff members dealing with the media, addressing public meetings, or publishing online or written materials make plain that it is NOT infact the Community which can exercise the Right to Withdrawal, but rather only the company or the Relevant Principal Local Authorities which can do so.”
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For more information, please contact NFLA Secretary Richard Outram by email to richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk
Notes to Editors
The letter sent to Mr Simon Hughes at NWS reads:
Mr Simon Hughes,
Community Engagement and Siting Director,
Nuclear Waste Services
Monday 18 September 2023
Mistaken statements over Right of Withdrawal
Dear Mr Hughes,
I am writing to you as Chair of the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities English Forum to express our concerns about mistaken statements made by senior NWS staff or printed in NWS publications about the so-called Community Right to Withdraw in which it has been erroneously claimed that the ‘Community can withdraw from the GDF process.’ The reality is that they cannot.
To cite two examples in the national media, and please forgive me, but I must start with yourself:
The Guardian, ‘It’s a bribe’: the coastal areas that could become the UK’s nuclear dump’, 17 May 2022
The Director for Community Engagement and Siting, Simon Hughes, said: ‘Communities also have the option to withdraw from the process at any time and will have to give explicit consent before construction can commence’.
Sky News, ‘Nuclear waste: Public to have a say on plans to bury radioactive material’, 18 March 2023
Prof Neil Hyatt, Chief Scientist for NWS, told Sky News: “If we provide a compelling case, if we provide the evidence to demonstrate safety, and the community wants to proceed, then a decision can be taken to do so.
“But a community holds the right of withdrawal.”
These claims are also repeated on the various Community Partnership websites:
Allerdale and Mid Copeland GDF Community Partnerships website:
https://midcopeland.workinginpartnership.org.uk/frequently-asked-questions/
The response to the question ‘How much of a say does my community have over whether a GDF is built here?’ includes the following words:
“We can withdraw from the process at any time, for any reason.”
South Copeland GDF Community Partnership website:
https://southcopeland.workinginpartnership.org.uk/frequently-asked-questions/
The response to the question ‘Can the Community Withdraw?’ includes the introductory wording:
“The community can withdraw from the siting process at any point up until a Test of Public Support is taken.”
Theddlethorpe GDF Community Partnership website:
https://theddlethorpe.workinginpartnership.org.uk/frequently-asked-questions/
The response to the question ‘How much of a say does my community have over whether a GDF is built here?’ includes the words:
“The community can be withdrawn from the process at any time” (by whom is not specified).
Even a video posted on You Tube by NWS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpENPvDSvcI&t=4s
Includes the words, at about 1.40:
“A community can withdraw from the siting process at any time up until it has taken a test of public support.”
It is even contradictory in the ‘NWS Community Guidance’ document, for which you wrote the foreword. On Page 61, it starts by saying that:
“A community can withdraw from the siting process right up to the point at which a Test of Public Support is taken, for any reason. This is known as the community’s Right of Withdrawal.”
And then qualifies this by stating the actual reality:
“The decision on whether to withdraw the community from the process will be taken by the relevant principal local authorities on the Community Partnership. Where there is more than one relevant principal local authority on the Community Partnership, all must agree; no single principal local authority will be able to unilaterally invoke the Right of Withdrawal.”
Similarly in the document ‘Developing the Community Partnership Agreement’ where on Page 3, clause 3.1.3 it states:
“The community can withdraw from the siting process at any point up until a Test of Public Support is taken (the “Community Right of Withdrawal”) (see Clause 13.2 below)”
Yet on Page 7 again it states:
13.2.2 The (Community Partnership) Members acknowledge: (a) The decision on whether to invoke the Community Right of Withdrawal will be taken by the RPLA (Relevant Principal Local Authority) Member(s) on the Community Partnership;
The so-called Community Right of Withdrawal is therefore a misnomer; for as it clearly states in official guidance, only two parties to the process can trigger the Right of Withdrawal, NWS as the developer and the Relevant Principal Local Authorities (the RPLAs), NOT the Community Partnership and certainly NOT the Community. And whilst there is provision for RPLAs to consult with their communities prior to choosing whether to exercise the Right of Withdrawal, as outlined in Section 13 of the ‘Developing the Community Partnership Agreement’, there is no legal requirement for them to do so.
Yet verbal and written statements from NWS continue to suggest the community holds the cards when it comes to the Right of Withdrawal causing understandable frustration amongst residents impacted by the proposals. Jan Bridget on behalf of the group Millom against the Nuclear Dump, which has over 400 local members, expressed this recently in a strongly worded email to the NWS Contact Management Team:
“Can you please stop NWS and all their publications from saying that the community can withdraw at any time. This is NOT true. As is stated, the decision to withdraw rests with others. So could there please be some honesty about this instead of telling the whole nation that we, the community, can withdraw at any time when this is BLATANTLY A LIE!”
Through continuing this practice the NWS is conveying the impression to the outside world that each of the communities must be in support of a GDF, or surely they would have chosen to ‘exercise their right’ to withdraw from the process? NWS has stated that it wants an open and honest dialogue with communities and stakeholders – I would suggest that one small step that NWS could take to begin building trust would be to give an undertaking that in future staff members issuing statements to the media, responding to their enquiries, addressing public meetings, or publishing statements online or in written media ensure that it is made plain that it is NOT infact the Community which can exercise the Right to Withdrawal, but rather only the NWS or the RPLAs.
Thank you for reading this letter. We would welcome your comments in response. Please reply by email to NFLA Secretary Richard Outram at richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk
Thank you. Yours sincerely,
Councillor David Blackburn,
Chair, NFLA English Forum / Vice-Chair, UK / Ireland NFLA Steering Committee
