The following is a Press Release from Nuclear Free Local Authorities outlining the growing resistance to the UKs most diabolic infrastructure plan
12th February 2025
The NFLAs have welcomed today’s statement made by the Leader of East Lindsey District Council that he shall recommend to his Executive that they ‘unanimously withdraw’ the council from the Theddlethorpe Community Partnership and the GDF process at their next meeting.
Coupled with the withdrawal of Millom Town Council from the South Copeland GDF Community Partnership and condemnation by Seascale Parish Council of the imposition of an Area of Focus for Mid-Copeland east of the village, this demonstrates that there is increasing disaffection amongst politicians with the process.
In his statement, ELDC Council Leader Craig Leyland cited the change of prospective site for a possible GDF surface facility from the former Theddlethorpe Conoco gas terminal to a 4km square parcel of farmland between the inland villages of Gayton le Marsh and Great Carlton. This he describes as prime agricultural land that has not had any previous industrial use and that is ‘nestling close to the Lincolnshire Wolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’.
The ELDC Executive Councillors have been publicly critical of plans to erect electricity pylons on such land, something they term the ‘industrialisation of the Lincolnshire countryside’. It would therefore been completely hypocritical for them to endorse the construction of a nuclear waste dump in similar circumstances.
The withdrawal of ELDC will not completely derail the process in Lincolnshire as Lincolnshire County Council will remain as the Relevant Principal Local Authority, but Councillor Leyland has urged LCC to maintain a commitment to a ‘binding’ Test of Public Support in 2027.
Local activists will be greatly encouraged by this news as the change of heart by the Council Leader represents a major step forward to victory. Any gambler would put money on the villagers of the Carltons and Gayton le Marsh being fiercely opposed to a GDF and a very ‘unwilling’ community when such a test in held. Carlton Parish Council has previously passed a resolution calling for an immediate public test and Gayton le Marsh has recently conducted a local poll on this issue amongst parishioners, with the results expected shortly.
Responding to the announcement, Theddlethorpe and Withern ELDC Councillor Travis Hesketh, who has since his election been consistent in his opposition to the GDF, said:
“This is good news for Lincolnshire people who have consistently opposed this speculative project. Lincolnshire County Council must follow East Lindsey District Council leadership by withdrawing from this lame duck. Mayor candidates, MP, District Council, Town Council, Parish Councils all reject the unwelcome advances of NWS. Attendees invited by NWS to their events last week were 90% against in exit polls.
The writing is on the wall for LCC. Time to pull out and apologise to my community for the uncertainty and suffering they have endured for 4 years.”
In May, elections will be held for Lincolnshire County Council, and this will provide an opportunity for local voters to put their mark on the ballot for an anti-dump candidate. The NFLA Secretary will be in the area on election week and will be reporting back on developments.
Elsewhere in West Cumbria, in November, Millom Town Council, which is the largest local authority in the South Copeland GDF Search Area, voted overwhelming to withdraw from the Community Partnership.
The minutes and decisions of that meeting were recently ratified when Town Councillors met at the end of January. They record a litany of concerns raised by Town Mayor Councillor Simone Faulkner.
Cllr Faulkner berated the lack of public consultation in Millom & Haverigg, describing it as ‘non-existent’ and with ‘no evidence of engagement with our young people’. On the Community Partnership, Cllr Faulkner also noted its membership ‘does not reflect the community of Millom & Haverigg as the voices that dominate it are from outside of the town’. Meetings were dysfunctional with many members being more focused on formalities rather than action and with trust issues between members and the developer.
A motion to withdraw Millom Town Council from the South Copeland GDF Community Partnership was proposed by Cllr Faulkner and seconded by Cllr McDonald. This was overwhelmingly carried.
This decision is reported to have triggered a suspension of South Copeland Community Partnership meetings, whilst an external review of its composition and operations takes place.
Our friends at the campaign group ‘Lakes against Nuclear Dump’ (LAND) have also just published an account of developments at Seascale Parish Council in the Mid Copeland Search Area.[i] With their permission we reproduce it here:
‘Following Millom Town Council’s withdrawal from the so called South Copeland Community Partnership with Nuclear Waste Services, Seascale Parish Council in the Mid-Copeland Partnership has rejected the plan for the nuclear dump headworks in or near their village.
This is significant as Seascale village, lying as it does adjacent to the sprawling Sellafield nuclear waste site, must be the most nuclear complicit village in the UK.This is what Seascale Parish Council have said:
“From Seascale Parish Council’s meeting on Wednesday we talked about GDF’s potential area of focus for Headworks and were shown a map of a potential area for Seascale. As a Parish Council we rejected the proposal as it was not suitable for Seascale at all, but there needs to be more than just our voice, attached is a map of the proposed Headworks location for Seascale.
We encourage residents to attend these events with GDF and voice their concerns too.
More information about their areas of focus including a brochure and other upcoming events can be found here:
Ironically the Copeland (now Cumberland) councillor who was one of less than a handful who took the delegated decision to take the Lake District coastline once again into the nuclear dump plan is Vice Chair of Seascale Parish Council. The Chair is Lizzie Mawson whose thriving ice-cream, bakery and cafe looks out over the small area of Seascale beach, not an “area of focus”.
Reality is beginning to bite despite the £Millions doled out by Nuclear Waste Services to all sorts of local causes.’
As we say in Manchester when disquiet becomes public, there is ‘trouble at t’mill’.
Ends//..For more information, please contact NFLA Secretary Richard Outram by email to: richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk
Notes for Editors
In 2021, East Lindsey District Council was invited by Radio Active Waste Management, now Nuclear Waste Services (NWS), to join a Working Group to explore whether the former Gas Terminal at Theddlethorpe would be a suitable location for a Ground Disposal Facility (GDF). Lincolnshire County Council had already accepted the same invitation.
Constitutionally, this was a decision for the Executive to make. Recognising the potential and wide-ranging impact of such a proposal, the Overview Committee was asked to consider the invitation as part of a pre-decision scrutiny.
The outcome of which was fed back to the Executive Board that being, we should engage in the process. That meeting took place on 19 October 2021.
We entered the process in good faith believing it was better to be involved and influencing a potential major infrastructure development that could have far ranging impacts, both positive and negative, for our residents and communities.
We have actively engaged in the process as a member of the Community Partnership.
We now know that NWS have had to review their potential use of the redundant Theddlethorpe gas terminal and late last year they instigated a search for a new Area of Focus for a site entrance for the offshore GDF.
Their findings were made public on Thursday 30 January 2025.
The surface Area of Focus is described as land between Gayton le Marsh and Great Carlton. The potential site covers some 4km2.
Clearly, this is land that has not had any previous industrial use and is prime agricultural land nestling close to the Lincolnshire Wolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
This is in stark contrast to the “brownfield” location at Theddlethorpe.
The Executive of ELDC is now of the view that this change in location and Area of Focus severely tests the original rationale for our involvement in the GDF siting process.
We also know of the understandable widespread concern for the proposed National Grid pylon consultation currently underway. ELDC shares the concern of many residents and communities regarding the industrialisation of the Lincolnshire countryside.
This brings into question how can we support a campaign to object to the environmental harm of the pylons and yet keep an open mind regarding the surface entry site for the GDF that will scar several kilometres of Lincolnshire farmland on the margins of the Lincolnshire Wolds?
The use of a brownfield site on the coast where a former facility had operated for over 40 years without local objection is completely different to a green field site in open countryside. The new site would also need attendant connecting infrastructure in the same sensitive countryside that the pylons would be scarring.
We also need to consider the progress that the Community Partnership has made in being the liaison between NWS and wider community. As the Leader of ELDC I have had to acknowledge at full council, that the engagement process has been clumsy, interrupted and not generally seen as helpful.
The four-year timescale to this point is disappointing and frustrating in equal measure.
It is only in recent months that the flow of more relevant information has been appropriate but both NWS and the Community Partnership have had to recognise that the engagement and consultation process had not been effective or informative in the way we had anticipated or hoped for. It has only achieved one thing and that is to unnecessarily antagonise and distress our residents and communities.
With this in mind, and after listening to community voices and our own councillor voices at parish, district and county level, I will recommend, at the next appropriate ELDC Executive meeting that we unilaterally withdraw from the Community Partnership and exit the process to site a GDF in East Lindsey.
Even if ELDC withdraws, Lincolnshire County Council can still remain in the process. We will urge LCC to initiate a binding Test of Public support by 2027.
Minute from the November meeting of Millom Town Council, approved as a true record 29 Jan 2025:
150/24: SOUTH COPELAND GDF PARTNERSHIP: Cllr Faulkner raised concerns following the latest South Copeland GDF Partnership meeting where she had attended on behalf of Millom Town Council. Cllr Falkner’s main concerns were as follows:
MTC have always declared itself neutral in the GDF process and supports the principle set out in the Policy that ultimately it will be the people that decide if they are willing to provide a local solution to a national problem by becoming the host community for a nuclear waste Geological Disposal Facility (GDF).
MTC has a responsibility to over 7300 residents in Millom & Haverigg to ensure that they are kept informed on the progress of the project and are educated to the potential risks and economic benefits that hosting a GDF could bring to the town. However Public engagement in Millom & Haverigg is currently non existent
There is no evidence of engagement with our young people who ultimately will be the generations that will deliver the project if it goes ahead.
The makeup of the partnership does not reflect the community of Millom & Haverigg as the voices that dominate it are from outside of the town.
The poor behaviours of members in meetings have been witnessed by several councillors who have reported back on an obsession with minutes & documents rather than focusing on actions that benefit the community.
It has been observed that members of the partnership are pushing an agenda of not trusting the developer which undermines the principle of putting the decision making in the hands of the public.
On these grounds of concern Cllr Faulkner proposed a motion that Millom Town Council withdraw from its seat on the South Copeland GDF Partnership, but that Millom Town Council would continue to support the principle of a policy that gives the final decision to the community and will work with NWS to identify how best to engage and educate the people of Millom and Haverigg as the project develops. Cllr Faulkner proposed that a letter to be sent to NWS confirming this withdrawal.
A debate followed with councillors expressing their individual opinions and concerns about withdrawing from the partnership. Cllr McDonald seconded Cllr Faulkner’s motion and the Chair then asked the councillors for a vote, it this was agreed by all councillors to do this: The following vote result was as follows: 9 members voted to withdraw, 1 vote to remain and 1 abstention. Therefore, the motion was unanimously carried [Ed: It was overwhelmingly, not unanimously, carried].
Action: Clerk to write letter to NWS to withdraw Millom Town Council from the South Copeland GDF Partnership on the above grounds
The Areas of Focus in the Mid-Copeland Search Area:
[i] https://www.lakesagainstnucleardump.com/post/seascale-parish-council-say-no-to-nuclear-dump-plan
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