Refusal to drop nuke dump plan at Theddlethorpe is ‘ministerial doublethink’

1 month ago 26

The UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities were disappointed – though unsurprised – to hear that the Nuclear Minister Andrew Bowie has refused their request to withdraw the threat of a nuclear waste dump from Theddlethorpe.

Nuclear Waste Services is the government funded body responsible for finding an eventual location for a Geological Disposal Facility, a deep repository into which Britain’s legacy and future high-level waste will be permanently deposited. In late January, NWS declared that South Holderness had been declared a Search Area for a GDF and that a Working Group had been established.

The announcement prompted an immediate hostile public reaction with over 1,400 local people joining the South Holderness GDF Action group in opposition to the plan. Their campaign was stunningly successful. Within one month, members had convinced local MP Graham Stuart to change his mind and call for South Holderness to be withdrawn from consideration. They had also persuaded Councillors to back, near unanimously, a motion to exercise the East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s Right to Withdraw killing the plan stone-dead.

Following the debacle, the NFLAs wrote to Mr Stuart, who is also the Energy Minister, asking him to lobby his ministerial colleague Mr Bowie to withdraw Theddlethorpe from further consideration.

Now the NFLAs have now received Mr Bowie’s reply. Despite the same circumstances existing that led to the South Holderness withdrawal, Mr Bowie has nonetheless determined to continue the process in Theddlethorpe in a classic example of ministerial doublethink. In both Search Areas, the demographic and economic profile is similar, and there has been high levels of public opposition.

South Holderness includes the tourist town of Withernsea surrounded by rural communities. By comparison, the Theddlethorpe Search Area encompasses the bustling resort of Mablethorpe and surrounding farming communities, including Theddlethorpe village itself. In both areas, much of the permanent population comprises older residents who have chosen their respective coastal idylls in which to retire. Like Withernsea, Mablethorpe is largely dependent on the largesse of seasonal tourists for its income, whilst further inland the economy is centred on agriculture, with the county being particularly famed for its potatoes.

The South and East Lincolnshire Councils’ Partnership has previously provided tourism figures for the East Lindsey district, which includes Mablethorpe. In 2022, there were almost four and a half million visitors, of which almost two million stayed for at least one night. Tourism was estimated to have generated over £824 million for the local economy and sustained almost 9,000 jobs.

Earlier this month, Lincolnshire County Council described the county as a ‘trending UK hotspot’, with an increase of 70% in hotel searches made in 2023 on the Experia website by prospective visitors, and the Visit Lincolnshire website also saw excellent growth in 2023 with over one million ‘hits’, an increase in user traffic up 61% last year against 2022. Responding to the news, Executive Councillor for Economy and Environment Colin Davie confirmed the County Council remains focused on promoting tourism: “Lincolnshire has always been known as a destination for our fantastic coastline and historic city, but we’re working hard to put the whole county on the map for tourists”.[1]

Frankly to the NFLAs it is inconceivable that a massive construction and engineering project which will last for a least a decade, and possibly two, and involve the movement of huge quantities of building materials onto site, millions of cubic metres of spoil off-site offsite, and repeated daily movements on and off site of hundreds of workers will not derail this plan and it also have a massively adverse impact on the farming community. Not only would this project deter tourists, but it would lead to holiday accommodation requisitioned for project workers, and the development would also surely damage the sales of agricultural produce from the county.

In his letter, Cllr Blackburn outlined our view that the GDF would have: ‘significant economic consequences with the complete devastation of local tourism (for who will want to holiday on a ‘nuclear coast’) and reputational damage to local agricultural products (for who will want to buy vegetables grown on land above a nuclear waste dump)’.

And this is before the GDF even began to accept high-level radioactive waste shipments.

The NFLAs’ pessimism is backed by estimates published by Radioactive Waste Management, the organisation which morphed into Nuclear Waste Services. In December 2016, RWM published the document ‘Geological Disposal Generic Socio-economic Assessment’ in which Section 6 outlines the expected impact on tourism. The report contains the findings of two studies, one from Switzerland and one from the US; these indicate that a GDF would lead to losses to the tourist economy of an urban coastal area of between £1,601 million and £1,681 million and to the tourist economy of a rural coastal area of between £938 million and £418 million, throughout the lifetime of the project.[2]

Yet in his reply to the NFLAs, Nuclear Minister Andrew Bowie writes that a GDF could bring: ‘infrastructure improvements that could support tourism and agriculture in the area’. In doing so, Mr Bowie must be referring to the promise of a visitor centre to the GDF, which has been estimated to bring in 11,000 to 100,000 visitors per annum, with most of the latter being press-ganged school groups ‘generating limited spend’, and supposedly ‘business tourism’, a euphemism for workers engaged on the GDF project staying locally overnight.[3]

According to a recent Network Rail report, even the possible renewal of a railway line to Mablethorpe is uncertain as costs are ‘very high’ and land assembly problematic, and there is also no guarantee that a passenger service will be restored alongside the regular shipments of high-level radioactive waste made to the nuclear dump as it may not prove economic.[4]

Mr Bowie’s optimistic statement is also in marked contrast to the comments made by his Conservative Party colleagues in East Yorkshire who hold a viewpoint more akin to that of the NFLAs. For on Graham Stuart’s website, Southeast Holderness Ward Councillors Lyn Healing and Sean McMasters are quoted as saying: “Holderness is a beautiful rural, agricultural area, farming has existed here for hundreds of years and hopefully will continue for hundreds more. Tourism is also prevalent to our area, and we feel a project of this scale would most certainly have an adverse effect on both.”[5] The same can also be said in its entirety of Theddlethorpe.

Ends//… For more information please contact the NFLA Secretary Richard Outram by email at richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk

The letter sent by NFLA English Forum Chair Cllr David Blackburn to Mr Stuart:

The Rt Hon Graham Stuart, 29 February 2024
Minister of State for Energy Security and Net Zero,
Department of Energy Security and Net Zero

Dear Mr. Stuart,

A Tale of Two Search Areas

I am writing to you as Chair of the English Forum of the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities. You will have received a similar letter from the members of Guardians of The East Coast and local elected members from East Lindsey (Mablethorpe, Sutton-on-Sea, and Theddlethorpe).

On 21 February, a full meeting of the East Riding of Yorkshire Council voted overwhelmingly to support a motion tabled by local Holderness Councillors seeking the withdrawal of South Holderness from the GDF (Geological Disposal Facility) siting process.

Subsequently, Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) have confirmed that they will ending the process and winding up the Working Group. I understand that you have received a letter from your colleague Nuclear Minister Andrew Bowie confirming that no proposal for a GDF will return to South Holderness.

Shortly after the motion was first published, you issued a media release, dated 7 February 2024, in which you expressed support for withdrawal and stated that:

“South Holderness is a special place, and the news that the area was being considered as the site for the UK’s GDF (Geological Disposal Facility) shocked many in our community.

“It is the people of Holderness who should determine what happens in their area and they have made clear their opposition to these plans.”[6]

Mablethorpe, Theddlethorpe, and Sutton-on-Sea in East Lincolnshire are, like South Holderness, ‘special places’; indeed, they share a very similar demographic and a very similar economic profile, they also face similar threats from climate change, and they have also mounted a robust local campaign of opposition to the GDF.

Although these resorts are busy in the holiday season, off-season they are very quiet, and like South Holderness, many people here have chosen this unique and tranquil spot to retire after busy working lives in the expectation that their retirement would never be disturbed by any monstrous and unwanted engineering project.

In your media release, Holderness East Councillor Sean McMaster is quoted as saying:

“Holderness is a beautiful rural, agricultural area, farming has existed here for hundreds of years and hopefully will continue for hundreds more.

“Tourism is also prevalent to our area, and we feel a project of this scale would most certainly have an adverse effect on both.

“Having said that, we have experienced an already creeping industrialisation of the area over the years. Wind Farms, the Biomass plant at Aldborough, Saltend and an extension at the Easington Terminal and now this.”

This description could equally apply to East Lindsey.

Mablethorpe is very much an established seaside town in the English tradition, with a beautiful unspoilt sunny beach, the Saltfleetby and Theddlethorpe Dunes, and the Donna Nook nature reserve. To the south, within the Search Area, also lies the picturesque resort of Sutton-on-Sea. Inland, there is extensive farmland, dotted with historic villages.

In September 2023, the unique beauty and wildlife of this coastline was recognised when this area was designated the Lincolnshire Coronation Coast, the first National Nature Reserve declared to mark the coronation of our new Sovereign, His Majesty King Charles III.

An infographic published by the South and East Lincolnshire Councils’ Partnership provides tourism figures for the East Lindsey district. In 2022, there were almost four and a half million visitors, of which almost two million stayed for at least one night. Tourism is estimated to have generated over £824 million for the local economy and sustained almost 9,000 jobs.

And, referencing the second strand of the local economy – agriculture, who hasn’t heard of the famed potatoes of Lincolnshire, many of which are farmed in this area.

In recent months, this community has also been threatened with ‘creeping industrialisation’, with plans for hydrogen generation and Carbon Capture and Storage, and the potential imposition of many pylons across the countryside.

Like South Holderness, local people were shocked when, in July 2021, BBC Radio Lincolnshire dropped a bombshell – that East Lindsey District Council had been in secret discussions with NWS for two years to bring a GDF to the former Conoco gas terminal site at Theddlethorpe.

Hundreds of residents soon formed a cohesive campaign group to oppose the plan. As in South Holderness, local people soon began leafletting local villages and housing estates, picketed NWS consultation events, organised a programme of public meetings, lobbied Councillors, established social media sites, and courted the press. Their efforts have attracted significant national media attention, and they have also been successful in securing a position on the Community Partnership.

In the local elections held last May, candidates standing on an anti-nuclear dump platform near totally swept the board, taking all the district council seats in the three communities and most of the positions on our three local parish and town councils.

It is the view of the NFLAs that these activities and these electoral results represent a clear expression of the fierce opposition of local voters to their community becoming a nuclear dump.

Theddlethorpe is a wholly unsuitable location for a Geological Disposal Facility. This is a quiet largely rural location. The former gas terminal site was a local aberration when it was employed in a commercial activity, and, at the outset, approval was only given by the planning authority on the understanding that the land would revert to agricultural use once operations ceased.

If approved, the GDF would bring huge and prolonged disruption to the quality of life of residents, particularly over the 10–15-year initial construction period. It would also have a hugely deleterious impact on the natural environment, which is now recognised to be of national importance, and significant economic consequences with the complete devastation of local tourism (for who will want to holiday on a ‘nuclear coast’) and reputational damage to local agricultural products (for who will want to buy vegetables grown on land above a nuclear waste dump).

Like Withernsea, Mablethorpe has had no railway line since the 1960’s and there would be immense pressure on the local rural road network to accommodate the traffic of construction materials, spoil, and a transient imported labour force. Local holiday camps would also doubtless be acquired to house some of the workforce engaged on long-term construction tasks displacing tourists and such incomers would place additional stresses on local medical infrastructure.

In addition, like South Holderness, Theddlethorpe is already experiencing coastal erosion and is threatened with storm surges and inundation as climate change increasingly impacts our nation. The former gas terminal site lies only a short distance from the shoreline, and there would be little to stop the floodwaters unless a massive and imposing seawall was constructed.

The NFLAs were of course delighted that the people of South Holderness have now had the threat of a GDF lifted from them in such short order – indeed we are proud that our Secretary played a small part in this process by offering you, other elected members and the South Holderness anti-GDF campaign group related advice – but it is galling, given the clear comparators between South Holderness and Theddlethorpe (demographics, economy, lack of infrastructure, threat from climate change and the level of public hostility), that the treatment the local people in East Lincolnshire have been afforded to date by officialdom has been totally inconsistent.

Indeed, it appears – to misquote Dickens – to be a Tale of Two Search Areas.

The new councillors, reflecting the local populace’s desire to see an end to the threat of the dump, have been active in acting on behalf of their constituents in taking motions to meetings of the district council calling for an early referendum. As a result of this pressure, the Leaders of the East Lindsey District and Lincolnshire County Councils ‘set out their preference for a ‘test of public support’ to take place by 2027’.[7]

But this still means that local people might have to wait for three more years for a resolution!

If the two local councils will not do the decent thing (as Relevant Principal Local Authorities) and follow the lead of their East Riding Council colleagues in exercising the Right to Withdraw, local people and elected members want to see a ballot of public opinion called now.

As a Member of Parliament who has recently endorsed the notion that a local referendum is the only fair mechanism to judge public support or opposition on such an important matter and as a senior minister in the government department with responsibility for nuclear matters – the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero – you are in a unique position to assist them.

I would therefore prevail upon you to speak with your departmental colleague, Nuclear Minister Andrew Bowie MP, to urge him to lobby the Conservative Leaders of East Lindsey District and Lincolnshire County Councils to either immediately exercise their Right to Withdraw or call the Test of Public Support as a local referendum as soon as is practicable.

The people of Mablethorpe, Sutton-on-Sea, and Theddlethorpe have already lived for almost three years with this nightmare.

They have had enough of consultation.

They have had enough ‘information’.

They are ready for a resolution now.

Thank you for considering this letter (and that of GOTEC) and in anticipation of your assistance in this matter. Please in the first instance direct any response to our NFLA Secretary Richard Outram by email to richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk

Yours Sincerely,

Councillor David Blackburn, Chair, on behalf of the NFLA England Forum

The reply from Nuclear Minister Andrew Bowie dated 14 March:

Letter from Andrew Bowie MP