3 months ago
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Last week’s surprise news that South Holderness is being considered as another potential site for a Geological Disposal Facility, or in layperson’s language a nuclear waste dump, will have been a great shock to many local people.
But residents can take heart because this is the fifth such announcement by Nuclear Waste Services and residents in West Cumbria and East Lincolnshire faced with similar news in previous years have mobilised successful campaigns to fight similar plans in their areas.
They have been supported in their fight by the Nuclear Free Local Authorities, a coalition of Councils and Councillors established in 1981 who are opposed to nuclear power and nuclear waste and advocate for a renewable energy future for Britain.
Together they have a wealth of experience that they can offer any nascent opposition group established to fight the GDF plan in South Holderness.
Closest to South Holderness, both geographically and demographically, is Theddlethorpe in East Lincolnshire, where the bombshell that Nuclear Waste Services had a plan to construct a GDF on the site of a former gas terminal first came out of the blue in July 2021 in a radio broadcast by the BBC.
Like South Holderness, Theddlethorpe and neighbouring seaside resort Mablethorpe have been historically dependent on tourism and agriculture, and a great many residents have chosen to retire in the area to enjoy its sandy beaches and picturesque scenery. Even King Charles agreed with the assessment, because the seashore nearby was designated the new Sovereign’s first Coronation Nature Reserve! No one expected the nuclear industry to want to muscle in on their coastal idyll for, like South Holderness, it has no historic connection to the nuclear industry.
Mablethorpe resident Ken Smith, who is Chair and Co-founder of GOTEC, the Guardians of the East Coast, explains how residents rather than being downhearted mobilised to oppose the plan:
“On July 22nd, 2021, BBC Radio Lincolnshire broke the news that our council had been in secret talks with Radioactive Waste Management (now Nuclear Waste Services) for two years with a view to building an underground Nuclear Waste Dump within half a mile of the town of Mablethorpe and the village of Theddlethorpe.
‘Within days, resident Sara Bright organised an open-air meeting in Mablethorpe to gauge the level of opposition and try to form an organisation to fight the proposals. We invited people to leave their names and contact details and took it from there.
“Our first event at Theddlethorpe Village Hall was packed.
“We found a printer who would give us a discount and had thousands of flyers printed and we circulated them to every house in the search area. While this was going on we set up an open Facebook page, No Nuke Dump in Lincolnshire. This was deliberately open to everyone so that we see arguments from both sides.
“When the Lincolnshire County Council Scrutiny Committee debated joining the GDF Working Group we were outside protesting, and we were given a three-minute slot to address the committee. When the Executive sat to decide whether to join the working group, we were there and once again we got a three-minute slot. When the District Council Executive met to decide on joining the working group, once again we were there telling them what a mistake it was. We never managed to sway the decision, as they had been discussing this for two years, but we did get a lot of publicity which meant that far more people knew they were not alone in their opposition.
“At the time RWM were claiming that it would provide 10,000 jobs. Within a year they brought that figure down to 4,000 and according to the latest news broadcast that has come down to 2,000”.
For the Chair of the NFLA’s English Forum, Leeds Councillor David Blackburn, the South Holderness news came as a real personal blow:
“This has been a great shock to me too, for in recent years I have chosen to go on holiday to beautiful Withernsea. I love the resort and the coast, and it would be a tragedy if this were blighted by a nuclear waste dump.
“This project would necessitate a construction and engineering project lasting at least a decade which would be vast with a surface facility developed that would be at least one kilometre square, which would be the receiving station for regular shipments of high-level radioactive waste, beneath which a network of tunnels would be dug up to 1,000 metres below the surface into which hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of waste would be deposited and from which vast amounts of spoil would be removed. If the eventual plan follows that established for Theddlethorpe, the tunnels would be dug out to sea, beneath the seabed.”
“Imagine the environmental destruction, the construction traffic, and the additional demands placed on affordable housing and local infrastructure as a result of the influx of the construction workforce; and this in a quiet, picturesque rural community? Not for nothing have comparisons been made between building a GDF and the Channel Tunnel”.
Contrary to some local news reports, the so-called GDF would not be a temporary destination for Britain’s high-level radioactive waste, rather it would be its permanent repository. The quoted 175 years would be the likely length of active operations on the site, from a lengthy period of construction prior to many decades of the facility receiving regular shipments of waste, and then the eventual sealing of the facility for perpetuity. At which point, the facility will be left unmonitored, and the waste would be irretrievable.
The NFLAs are opposed to the current industry policy of ‘dumping and disregarding’ high-level radioactive waste in a GDF, instead they advocate for nuclear waste to be stored in state of the art near-site, near-surface facilities that are kept under constant supervision and management, with an option for the retrieval and repackaging of waste in the event of an accident. Above all they want to see no more nuclear waste generated, with the UK switching as quickly as is practical from nuclear power generation to a renewable energy future.
However, despite the gloomy news, both GOTEC and the NFLAs can offer some hope. For the establishment of a Working Group and the announcement of the first phase of public consultation is just the beginning of a process that may last 10-15 years, so it is not a done deal. And, as the process is based ultimately upon ‘public consent’, if local people and Councillors mobilise in opposition it can be stopped.
The deciding factors that will eventually determine whether South Holderness, Theddlethorpe, or Mid- or South-Copeland in West Cumbria, are selected as the location for the GDF are the suitability of the geology and the willingness of the local community to accept it, which will be determined at the end by a Test of Public Support. Nuclear Waste Services has already suffered a setback when it was obliged to withdraw from Allerdale in the autumn of last year citing the unsuitability of the geology.
Ken Smith tells us more about how GOTEC continues to oppose the plan:
“Well, since we formed our organisation Guardians of the East Coast (yes, the name’s a bit pretentious but it makes a good acronym GOTEC), we have launched a web site which outlines what is planned and offers information on why the GDF is a bad thing for our area. The website provides several opportunities for people to sign up for our monthly newsletter. The website has a blog which we add to regularly so that people have a reason to return to the site.
“GOTEC holds in-person meetings almost every month to enable activists to come together to share news and to encourage one another to continue the fight!
“We used the 2023 district and parish council elections to ensure that all of those representing the area were opposed to the dump. We supported anyone who was opposed to it. Political affiliation had nothing to do with it. We supported Green, Labour, and independent candidates (none of the Conservative candidates was prepared to fight it), and most of the candidates we backed won!
“When NWS holds an event, we attend and give visitors lists of questions they can ask. We’ve also produced leaflets that can be printed from our website. These leaflets highlight some of the lies, like the number of jobs and the prosperity that comes with Nuclear Waste, that are perpetrated by NWS. Our next event must be a holiday maker survey. We will use simple questions like ‘Would having a Nuclear Waste Dump 200 metres away from your caravan affect your choice of holiday venue?’ This is to counter an NWS survey where they claimed that 70% of the handful of people they surveyed said the presence of the GDF would make no difference. We will also be supporting anti dump candidates in the general elections”.
For his part, Councillor David Blackburn has particularly welcomed the early commitment of Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart to demand the ‘toughest available test: a referendum of residents in the affected area’:
“It is good that Mr Stuart wants to see a referendum held; the NFLAs have also been advocating for a referendum to be the eventual Test of Public Support in each of the prospective Search Areas. Normally this would be at the very end of a decade long process, but perhaps in South Holderness it might be possible to mobilise an effective local campaign to pressurise the East of Riding Council either to withdraw from the process or agree to call an earlier Test of Public Support? If the Council withdraws or the result of a Test of Public Support is a NO, then the process will end.
“In Lincolnshire, the County and District Councils have not agreed to withdraw, but Ward and District Councillors, backed by GOTEC, have secured a promise from the Council Leaders to hold an earlier poll in 2027. If the result then is a NO, then the proposal for Theddlethorpe will be killed, stone dead.”
“Mr Stuart is however also in a unique position as a Minister at the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero to have a chat over tea and biscuits with his colleagues, the Secretary of State Claire Coutinho and Nuclear Minister Andrew Bowie, to convince them of the unsuitability of South Holderness to accommodate the GDF. Ms Coutinho and Mr Bowie are ultimately responsible for nuclear power policy in the UK, including the disposal of high-level radioactive waste.”
In lieu of ministerial intervention, GOTEC and the NFLAs now stand ready to offer initial advice and support to any local Councillor or local campaign group formed to oppose the plan to bring a nuclear waste dump to South Holderness.
You can find out more about the Guardians of the East Coast at: https://www.gotec.org.uk/
You can find out more about the NFLAs at https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/
Ends//… For more information, please contact the NFLA Secretary Richard Outram by email to richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk
1. https://www.grahamstuart.com/news/graham-calls-nuclear-waste-referendum
