Published at 13:19, Monday, 14 May 2012

COUNCIL planners have said Sellafield should be considered for a nuclear waste dump, ahead of other locations in the county.

Cumbria County Council planning officers made the recommendations in a report that saw controversial plans for a low-level waste dump at Keekle Head, near Distington, turned down.

The plans were submitted by Endecom to turn a former open cast coal mine into a dump for low-level and very-low-level radioactive waste, mostly from Sellafield, for the next 50 years.

Cumbria County Council’s development control and regulation committee voted unanimously to reject the scheme.

A planning officers’ report recommended that Endecom’s scheme was turned down. It said there was no need for another low-level waste disposal site until 2030.

Other locations – such as Sellafield – should be considered first, and Endecom’s plans would degrade the landscape and damage Sandbeds Meadows county wildlife site.

Speaking after the meeting Phil Holland, decommissioning development manager for Endecom, said: “This is a disappointing outcome as we firmly believe there is a long-term need for such a facility.

“We will take stock of the decision before deciding how best to proceed.”

Anti-dump protester, Paul Cowling, told councillors: “To put a nuclear dump in such an area is a disgusting idea.’’

Kevin Bell, who lives yards from the site, said the proposal would make his home impossible to sell.

He added: “Cumbria is going to be known as the nuclear dump capital of England.”

Annemarie Wilshaw, planning manager for Endecom, argued the facility was needed to relieve pressure on the low-level repository at Drigg.

Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk