Council row over £3m 'dirty nuclear' funding

There has been strong local opposition to the Theddlethorpe plans

A council leader has defended the authority's decision to accept £3m from a nuclear waste agency after opposition members dubbed it "dirty money".

East Lindsey District Council has approved receipt of the funds from the Environment Agency to support the maintenance of the council's coastal defences.

However, the money is part of a £9.3m package given to the Environment Agency by Nuclear Waste Services (NWS), the government body considering building a nuclear waste disposal facility at the former gas terminal in Theddlethorpe, near Mablethorpe.

During a heated full council meeting on Wednesday, leader Craig Leyland said: "I don't care if it's tainted money."

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service after the meeting, Leyland insisted the funding was not tainted because the council did not have decision-making powers over the nuclear waste site, known as a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF).

Instead, he said the decision lay with residents, who were expected to participate in a test of public support no later than 2027.

Leyland said taking the money was a "wise financial move in terms of making sure the EA get on with it [coastal defence spending]" and said it meant "we don't have to use money that we could spend on our communities".

The Theddlethorpe site is one of three locations under consideration, alongside Mid Copeland and South Copeland in Cumbria

During the meeting, outraged members labelled the funding as "pure blackmail", warning it could leave the council "in the pocket" of NWS.

Councillor Robert Watson cautioned that accepting the funds would mean the council "surrenders its independence" to the nuclear agency.

Councillor Jill Makinson-Sanders echoed these concerns, saying: "If we are taking money from the nuclear people, we cannot fly the flag for being independent. We will regret it."

In response, Conservative Councillor Tom Ashton, portfolio holder for planning, argued: "If the council votes down these proposals, we will literally be relying on Father Christmas to come up with an alternative."

Speculation mounting

During the meeting, a number of members believed the council should go directly to the government to help fund the coastal defences, but Leyland said that was "naive."

"The government has other competing priorities, we are not the only area in the country with flood risk issues," he added.

Last week, Lincolnshire County Councillors criticised the level of communication from NWS after its director stated the agency was considering other options for the site.

They raised questions about which other sites were being considered and, crucially, whether the development was safe.

Councillor Daniel McNally pointed out that without official information from NWS, social media speculation becomes the news. "It's just a mess," he said.

This concern was reinforced during Wednesday's meeting when a member of the public asked a question, wrongly believing NWS had dropped the Theddlethorpe site from consideration for the GDF.

'Safe and secure'

NWS chief operating officer Martin Walkingshaw previously stated: "The GDF programme is unique in the UK, in that it requires explicit community support to go ahead.

"We recently held a series of events in Mablethorpe where over 500 people came to learn about the world class science, engineering and technology needed to safely develop a GDF and understand how it could be located in the area.

"Scientists around the world agree that geological disposal is the safest and most secure, long-term solution for the most hazardous radioactive waste."

The nuclear agency said the development would create more than 4,000 local jobs over 25 years and help store about 10% of the UK's nuclear waste in a secure location for thousands of years.

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