FoE letter to Secretary of State Ed Davey supporting Cumbria's decision

Feb 8th 2013

Dear Mr Davey

Cumbria's withdrawal from MRWS

I am writing on behalf of West Cumbria & North Lakes Friends of the Earth in support of Cumbria County Council's decision to withdraw from the MRWS process. It was a decisive vote which recognised the many concerns expressed by a very large number of people and organisations.

We were heartened to hear your subsequent confirmation that this brings the MRWS process in Cumbria to an end, in line with the assurance given by former Minister Charles Hendry and his successors to the effect that only 'three green lights' would be sufficient to allow the process to go ahead.

We regret that this development may call into question the principle of volunteerism, but feel that this has occurred as a result of the flawed way in which it has been implemented. You will no doubt have seen the critique of the MRWS process I presented to the Minister John Hayes at the October meeting of the DECC / NGO Forum, and I attach it to remind you. We regarded DECC's reply as completely inadequate and await a fuller response at the next Forum meeting on Feb 28th.

We are, however, dismayed at the recent claims made by Allerdale and Copeland Borough Councils who believe they somehow have an alternative mandate to move to the next stage, and note that you are meeting with them next week.

Flawed though the MRWS process was, the principle of holding meetings in public has had huge merit, and I would urge you to continue it by inviting representatives of those of us who opposed this development successfully to the meeting that is scheduled to take place with the Copeland and Allerdale leaders.

We hope that policy for nuclear waste will now shift to the very serious problems of existing waste at the Sellafield site, with all the safety issues that this brings for people in Cumbria - and indeed beyond. We welcome the Parliamentary PAC comments on the recent NAO report, and we wish to contribute to this debate. To this end we will be issuing our own report on the Legacy Waste at Sellafield shortly, with analysis as to how this untenable situation has arisen.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Ruth Balogh

Nuclear issues campaigner
West Cumbria & North Lakes Friends of the Earth

cc. Jamie Reed, Tony Cunningham, Tim Farron, Rory Stewart