4 months ago
20
The Nuclear Free Local Authorities have sent a joint letter to the parish and town councils located in the West Cumbria search areas under consideration for a Geological Disposal Facility urging them to consider polling their parishioners over the controversial plan.
The co-signatories are the NFLAs English Forum Chair, Councillor David Blackburn, Councillor Jill Perry, Green Party Group Leader on Cumberland Council and Jan Bridget, co-founder of Millom against the Nuclear Waste Dump.
Nuclear Waste Services, a division of the taxpayer-funded Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, is engaged in long-term investigations to determine the suitability of locating the GDF on the West Cumbrian coast. The facility would have a surface site to receive regular shipments of high-level radioactive waste from Sellafield and this waste would then be transported along tunnels out under the Irish Sea, before the GDF once filled is sealed.
Two search areas have been designated Mid-Copeland and South Copeland, with their boundaries drawn in conformity with Cumberland Council electoral wards, and NWS has established a Community Partnership in each, which provide some limited oversight to the process. Members of the Community Partnerships include elected members from Cumberland Council, deemed the Relevant Principal Local Authority under the guidance established for the plan, and representatives from each of the parish and town councils encapsulated in the search areas.
The UK Government and NWS are adamant that the final selection of the site will be determined by two factors – the suitability of the geology and the acceptance of the plan by the local host community.
Geological investigations may take up to 15 years to complete, with desktop, aerial and seismic surveys being augmented in the second stage by deep exploratory boreholes for rock sampling. NWS are expected to periodically sense check public perceptions of the plan until in the final stages a Test of Public Support is conducted to determine if local people are willing to see their area taken forward.
The so-signatories are unhappy that there is no mechanism built into the plan to conduct interim opinion polls to identify public feeling over time, and they are disappointed that most local councils have yet to conduct their own polls to determine if their appointed representatives to the Community Partnership are reflecting the opinions of their parishioners. They would like parish and town councils to follow the lead shown by Whicham which took the initiative, independently of NWS, and did so.
NFLA English Chair, Councillor David Blackburn, explained: “Councillors everywhere stand for office in the expectation that they will faithfully serve their community and reflect their constituents’ views. At the most local level of government, parish or town councils, the Councillor will be resident in and a member of that community, and their decisions will have a direct impact of their own lives and those of their neighbours, friends and family members, who are also their voters.
“The GDF will represent a massive long-term construction and engineering undertaking, having been compared to the building of the Channel Tunnel. A GDF would take at least ten years to build and would be accepting packages of high-level radioactive waste for over a century, before the tunnels are backfilled and sealed, and the surface facility removed. It would be hugely disruptive to any small community, impacting the quality of life of local residents for generations and damaging the environment.
“In January of this year, Whicham commendably sent out a questionaire to all of its parishioners asking if they were in favour of, or opposed, the GDF. Around 400 questionaires were returned by post from about two thirds of those households who received the questionaire. 300 were opposed to the plan at that point, a clear indication that Whicham was an ‘unwilling’ community.
“Whicham’s representative on the Community Partnership can now act in the near future with the knowledge that their constituents’ views have been polled and we hope that other local Councils will want to follow their lead and also conduct opinion polling. This should be an iterative process and we believe that such polls should be repeated from time-to-time to allow local Councillors to continue to take the pulse of their community on this, the most contentious of local issues.”
Ends//..For more information, please contact the NFLA Secretary by email to richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk
Notes to Editors
The letter sent to the Parish Clerks of Beckermet with Thornhill Parish Council, Drigg and Carleton Parish Council, Gosforth Parish Council , Millom Town Council, Millom Without Parish Council, Ponsonby Parish Council, and Seascale Parish Council.
Wednesday 6 December 2023
Dear Parish Clerk,
With reference to the pursuit of the possible proposal to bring a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) to your area, in January of this year Whicham Parish Council chose to conduct a postal survey amongst its electors / parishioners to determine their views about said development to ensure that Parish Councillors were aware of, and reflected, these views in their interactions with the Community Partnership and Nuclear Waste Services.
62.78% of those receiving the questionnaire responded. Of these 15.15% were in favour of the GDF, 76.62% against, 6.49% undecided and 1.73% returned blank. The survey comprised 400 responses.
We are now nearly twelve months on in the process and electors/parishioners in your own parish or town council will have received a further year of information from the Community Partnership and Nuclear Waste Services, and invitations from them to attend community events. As a result, they should – theoretically – be better informed about what GDF will mean to them, their family and their community and consequently better placed to express an opinion in a survey covering the Council area.
Councillors stand for election in order to serve their community, and we are confident that your elected representatives will also be forthright in expressing this view. Accordingly, might we therefore enquire as to whether your Parish Council intends to follow Whicham’s lead in conducting its own postal survey amongst its parishioners in early 2024 so that your elected members may become appraised of local feeling on this most important issue and therefore best able to reflect these views when dealing with the Community Partnership and Nuclear Waste Services?
And if it does not intend to conduct such a survey, in order that we might accurately report your Council’s position, please could you give us a reason(s) why?
Thank you for your attention to this enquiry. We look forward to hearing from you. Please direct your reply by email to the NFLA Secretary Richard Outram at richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk
Yours faithfully,
Councillor David Blackburn,
Chair, on behalf of the NFLA England Forum.
Councillor Jill Perry,
Cumberland Council
Jan Bridget, Co-founder,
Millom against the Nuclear Waste Dump
