10 December 2024 – sorry forgot to post!
The UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities have made an appeal to the South Copeland GDF Community Partnership and Nuclear Waste Services to exclude tourist spots, heritage sites and the local prison from consideration as Areas of Focus in South Copeland.
The Chair of the NFLAs, Councillor Lawrence O’Neill, has written to the Chair of the South Copeland GDF Community Partnership and the Head of Siting at NWS asking them to ensure that local beaches, the RSPB nature reserve and historic sites are not included in the Areas of Focus. He has also asked them to exclude the sites earmarked for investment through the
Town Fund, particularly the restored Iron Line and the refurbished cycle and walkways that will criss cross the district, as well as HMP Haverigg as a major local employer.
The South Copeland GDF Search Area comprises the Millom Without and Millom electoral wards. Much of the area is already excluded from possible development because it lies within the Lake District National Park, but coastal areas around Drigg, Haverigg, and Millom, and inland to Kirksanton are still under consideration as potential sites for a Geological Disposal
Facility. The GDF will be the final repository for Britain’s high level radioactive waste currently stored and managed at Sellafield. Low-level radioactive waste is stored at an existing repository located at Drigg.
Two other Search Areas are also being considered by Nuclear Waste Services – Mid Copeland, which adjoins South Copeland, and Theddlethorpe in East Lincolnshire.
Nuclear Waste Services has recently announced that it intends to identify Areas of Focus in each of the three Search Areas in which to conduct ‘further investigative and technical studies’ One of these Areas of Focus could eventually be selected as the location for a surface facility
approximately 1 km square in size that would receive the nuclear waste shipments before
these are taken below ground and out along tunnels under the seabed.
It is logical that NWS will be looking for locations for the surface site as near to the coast as possible. However NWS might locate some of its ancillary services elsewhere in the selected Search Area and the organisation has recently taken possession of the old Millom Library for
use as offices.
NWS has recently published guidance about how Areas of Focus will be selected.i ii Within the guidance is a recognition that there will be ‘land-use constraints’ which will exclude certain locations within a Search Area from consideration as Areas of Focus. ‘These include: –
community considerations e.g. avoiding built-up (urban) areas and designated settlement boundaries which could be impacted by noise etc.; and – protected areas and environmental constraints, for example National Parks, National Landscapes, ecologically sensitive/protected areas, areas with higher levels of flood risk, known heritage sites.’ The Millom district is described as the West Lakes on the Lake District tourism website and was formerly adminstered by the Copeland Council, before its abolition and replacement by a new unitary Cumberland Council. Figures published by Cumbria Tourism show that tourism generated almost £300 million across the former Copeland Council municipal area in 2023.
Notable local beauty spots include several beaches and the RSPB Hodbarrow bird reserve.
In November 2022, the Millom Town Deal Board secured an offer of £20.6 million from the Town Fund for projects it identified as local priorities. Copeland Council had also been awarded £500,000 by central government in immediate Covid-19 recovery funding. There was an additional £8.7 million in match funding. This combined sum amounting to around £30 million
will be employed to deliver several priority projects to enhance the infrastructure and environment of Millom and Haverigg. The Town Deal website indicates that it is estimated that 100,000 more visitors will be attracted to the area each year, particularly to enjoy the revitalised Iron Line, with a considerable uplift in tourist revenue.
The active Millom and District Local History Society https://www.millomhistory.org.uk/) has identified many local sites of heritage value as the area has been occupied since pre-historic
times. The Society has held several well attended public meetings, at which recent findings relating to Roman occupation were featured. The Society has also hosted a community dig.
In his letter, Councillor O’Neill has asked the Community Partnership and Nuclear Waste Services to consult the Society to identify sites of historic importance that should be excluded from consideration.
A Freedom of Information Act request from the NFLAs to the Ministry of Justice revealed that over 200 staff are employed at HMP Haverigg, of which half live in the LA18 postal district which covers Haverigg and Millom. In addition to this, there are also economic benefits from
the prison being supplied and supported by local businesses. In his letter Cllr O’Neill expresses his hope that HMP Haverigg will automatically be excluded by virtue of being a major local employer.
For more information please contact the NFLA Secretary Richard Outram by
email to richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk