Local people get slim chance of taking part in Nuke dump Inquiry

Friends of the Earth nuclear issues campaigner Ruth Balogh spoke at the Keekle Head Public Inquiry in Kendal on Friday June 28th over plans for a radioactive waste dump at Keekle head near Pica, West Cumbria.

Dr Balogh said that people living near Pica have little opportunity to speak at the inquiry which is being held at the other end of the county in Kendal, and have had even less chance to scrutinise the Inquiry documents because they have only been available on-line.

At the Inquiry Dr Balogh said:

'The location of this Inquiry in Kendal is just about as far as you could possibly get from Pica and still be in Cumbria. It is of maximum inconvenience in terms of time and expense for people in West Cumbria to get here, and attendance by West Cumbrian residents is sparse indeed. I can assure the Inquiry that had it been held, say in Cleator Moor, Workington, or Whitehaven, I would have dropped in from time to time. But dropping in to Kendal isn't possible from West Cumbria. I can only speculate as to whose convenience is being served by holding a public inquiry here, but it is not the people who live near Pica - and it should be.'

She went on to argue that this development would set the seal on West Cumbria as a place for all kinds of nuclear waste to be dumped. It would also adversely affect the local economy and house prices, and would damage the environment. There are serious concerns, she argued, about leakage from a dump in this location.

'Lagoons have already appeared since the open cast mining ceased, and the chances seem very high that something similar would happen. Yet for a nuclear waste dump, leakage must not be allowed to happen.'