No Worries! Nuclear and Coal In Close Proximity – is ALL OK according to Council Planning Officers in their Recommendations

PRESS NOTICE

Nuclear and Climate Concerns Brushed Under the Carpet in Officers Recommendation to Approve Cumbrian Coal Plan

Nuclear Safety Campaigners at Radiation Free Lakeland are shocked at the report published yesterday by Angela Jones Executive Director of Economy and Infrastructure to Cumbria County Council.   In advising Councillors who will take the decision on October 2nd whether or not to grant permission, the report concludes that “I am persuaded that the risks are manageable and that the benefits overall clearly outweigh those likely impacts identified”. 

A spokesperson from Radiation Free Lakeland said:  “we are horrified that Officers have completely brushed aside our detailed report from marine expert Tim Deere Jones on the potential for radiological impacts. They have used a comment from South Lakes Action on Climate Change that : ‘the above issues would raise even greater concern should Underground Coal Gasification be proposed which has potential for large scale subsidence that is harder to control.”

The nuclear safety campaigners say “The report by Tim Deere Jones is specific to this planning application and specific to its unique position. The report details the intolerable consequences of massive new voids caused by coal mining in this specific area which includes the dangers of induced siesmicity near Sellafield as well as likely subsidence of the Cumbrian Mud Patch. To brush this serious nuclear issue under the carpet in this way by using the SLACC comment is utterly contemptous of what is arguably the most serious aspect of this coal mine.

Radiation Free Lakeland note also that the Officers report does not in any way attempt to address West Cumbria Mining’s repeated contempt for climate concerns “WCM does not consider that there is a requirement to assess the emissions caused by the end use of coal which is extracted from the Development”. 

Nuclear Safety Campaigners will be reading the full report in detail and will comment further but in the meantime urge people to lobby their own councillors to urge the Development Control and Regulation Committee members to defy the dangerous Officers report and vote NO on 2nd October. They can also be contacted direct here.

There is also an ongoing Petition  https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/no-new-coal-mine-in-cumbria

Note: 

Radiation Free Lakeland have been running a campaign to Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole since 2017. This has included the legal challenge by Leigh Day which has seen the plan repeatedly kicked into the long grass.

Tim Deere Jones Report into Implications of Potential Seabed Subsidence, Seismicity and Fault Reactivation beneath the Cumbrian Mud Patch

SLACC comment regarding Underground Coal Gasification being “harder to control” than coal mining in response to Tim Deere Jones report can be found on page 75 of CCC Public Reports Pack https://planning.cumbria.gov.uk/Planning/Display/4/17/9007