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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.[1][2] 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.
Ends://..For more information please contact the NFLA Secretary Richard Outram by email to richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk
Notes to Editors
The text of the letter sent to Cllr McGrath and Mr Reece:
Ged McGrath,
Chair,
South Copeland GDF Community Partnership
Steve Reece,
Head of GDF Siting Strategy,
Nuclear Waste Services
Tuesday 10 December 2024.
Dear Councillor McGrath and Mr Reece,
I am writing to you as Chair on behalf of the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities.
Nuclear Waste Services has recently announced its next step in investigating the suitability of each of the three Search Areas for potentially locating the Geological Disposal Facility: by conducting ‘further investigative and technical studies’ in identified Areas of Focus in three categories: Sub-surface, Surface, and Accessway.
My understanding is that the Areas of Focus will take account of ‘land-use constraints’, i.e. exclude ‘built-up areas’, ‘settlements’, and ‘protected areas’, such as ’National Parks, National Landscapes, ecological sensitive areas, protected areas with known flood risks and known heritage sites’.
The South Copeland GDF Search Area is already significantly constrained by the proper exclusion of the Lake District National Park, but given that it likely that one or more Areas of Focus could become the potential location of the surface site or the accessway, the NFLAs are anxious to ensure that the benefits of Towns Fund investment, local nature reserves, local beaches and local heritage sites are preserved for the future. In addition, we have made reference to the preservation of the HMP Haverigg site by virtue of being a major local employer.
I am therefore writing to you to request the following areas be excluded from consideration as Areas of Focus:
Millom Town Fund project sites:
In the South Copeland GDF Search Area, the Millom Town Fund Board secured £20.6 million from the UK Government’s Towns Fund, paired with £8.7 million in match funding.[3]
This was preceded by an investment of £500,000 in immediate Covid-19 recovery funding.[4]
This £30 million investment will be employed to deliver a variety of key projects in Haverigg, Millom, and surrounding areas, including:
The Iron Line project to enhance the sea wall and coastal lagoon off the coast of Millom, and create a visitor centre, to form ‘an inspirational and fully inclusive route across RSPB Hodbarrow’.
Improving, revitalising, and repurposing heritage buildings in the town centre.
The creation of a new, multi-purpose community and leisure hub to provide a range of facilities, including a swimming pool and 3G pitch, as well as improvements at Millom and Haverigg parks.
Developing Millom Railway Station as a hub and making road, cycleway, and walkway improvements within and between the towns, with links to the Iron Line development.
Establish a new, accessible cycling, running and walking track to encourage residents to enjoy more activity and exercise.
Celebrate Millom’s Poet Norman Nicholson with a digital trail around the town.
The objectives are ‘to help maximise inclusive economic growth and better connectivity for the area while developing a welcoming arts, culture and tourism offer, thriving independent businesses and healthy, active people’.
This investment will provide infrastructure improvements that will improve the quality of life of residents and furthermore Town Fund documentation indicates that an estimated 100,000 visitors will be attracted to the area, providing a significant uplift in income to the local community.
Many of these projects are located within Millom Town Centre so excluded as ‘built up areas / settlements’ from consideration as Areas of Focus, but the Iron Line and transport improvements which include over 7 kms of cycleways and footpaths may not; accordingly I am making an appeal that these also be safeguarded.
Nature Reserves and Beaches:
On the RSPB website, Hodbarrow is described as ‘once an iron mine…now a tranquil stretch of coastal lagoon and grassland overlooking the Duddon estuary’. Amongst the birdlife to be found there it is particularly notable that this include Great Crested Grebes which nest on the island here, a ‘magnificent bird almost hunted to extinction in the UK’, and amongst the flora, can be found the ‘threatened Pillwort, the UK’s only aquatic fern’.[5]
Haverigg, Millom, and Silecroft beaches are described as award-winning. The Visit Lake District site exhorts tourists thus: ‘No visit to Millom is complete without a trip to a nearby beach! And there are few beaches as wild and strikingly beautiful as Silecroft. This gently sloping sand and shingle beach stretches for 3 miles and sits against the backdrop of the majestic Black Combe fell. You can now walk all the way from Silecroft to Whitehaven along the newly opened England Coast Path’.[6]
Clearly these locations being tourist attractions and of community amenity should be excluded.
Heritage Sites:
Since its revitalisation in November 2021, the Millom and District Local History Society has been extremely active in identifying and cataloguing heritage sites and finds in, and around, Haverigg and Millom, including undertaking community digs.
It is clear from the Society website that these investigations will over the course of time reveal much that is precious from the past. The district has a rich history, being described on the society’s website thus:
‘How many places can boast of Prehistoric footprints, Neolithic crop marks (with several stone monuments not far away), a possible Bronze Age round house, likely Roman occupation, inclusion in the Domesday Book, a Medieval Castle and Church, on site involvement in the English Civil War (Roundheads and Cavaliers), an annual fair and weekly market from 1251 until about 1777, a possible deserted medieval village then right through to its important industrial heritage?’.[7]
A search entering ‘Millom’ on the Historic England website reveals a great many local heritage sites reflecting this rich history[8], and the local history society has identified more which require listing.
I would therefore like to ask NWS to consult with the Millom and District Local History Society on the boundaries of the Area(s) of Search to ensure that no local heritage site will be compromised.
HMP Haverigg
It is my hope that HMP Haverigg will automatically be excluded by virtue of a ‘community consideration’, it being both (in its own way) a ‘settlement’ and a major local employer.
In response to a request made by our NFLA Secretary under the Freedom of Information Act, the Ministry of Justice disclosed that as of 30 July 2024 the direct workforce was as follows:
You can see that, as of this date, just over half the staff came from the LA18 postal district of Haverigg and Millom.
However, this does not fully reveal the economic impact of the prison’s activities as the Ministry was unable to supply details of the local businesses and sub-contractors in the LA18 district who are commissioned to deliver goods or services or carry out other work at the prison.[9]
I trust that the HMP Haverigg site, and the roadways leading up to it, shall be excluded from consideration as an Area of Focus.
Thank you for considering these requests. Your comments in response via our NFLA Secretary Richard Outram richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk would be most welcome.
Yours sincerely,
Councillor Lawrence O’Neill,
Chair, For the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities
1 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/finding-a-suitable-site-for-a-geological-disposal-facility/identifying-areas-of-focus-our-methodology
2 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6751baec19e0c816d18d1e1c/NWS_AOF_Methodology_Brochure.pdf
3 https://millomtowndeal.org.uk/
4 https://www.copeland.gov.uk/node/45097
5 https://www.rspb.org.uk/days-out/reserves/hodbarrow
6 https://www.visitlakedistrict.com/explore/millom
7 https://www.millomhistory.org.uk/time/index.html
8 https://historicengland.org.uk/sitesearch?searchType=site&search=Millom&page=2
9 https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/over-two-hundred-jobs-may-be-lost-if-haverigg-jail-is-displaced-by-nuclear-dump/
