By David Siddall

Published at 15:46, Wednesday, 05 November 2008

COUNTY councillors have deferred a decision on backing the option of an underground nuclear repository for Copeland, to avoid any potential legal challenges from green campaigners.

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The county Cabinet decided on Tuesday to pass the issue to the full council meeting on November 20. Once all 84 councillors have debated the matter it will still be up to the Labour-controlled Cabinet, meeting on December 9, to make the decision.

Although Labour does not have an overall majority on the county council, it currently runs the Cabinet after the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats declined to take cabinet seats.

The resolution under the spotlight is: “That Cabinet, on behalf of County Council, makes a without commitment ‘expression of interest’ in Managing Radioactive Waste Safely for the Copeland area in view of the nuclear waste legacy at the Sellafield site and the need to minimise the future movement of waste.”

The Whitehaven News understands that if Allerdale also expresses an interest in hosting a nuclear repository the resolution will be changed to West Cumbria rather than Copeland.

Opposition Conservative and Liberal Democrat county councillors are unhappy that the cabinet will have the final say, not the full council.

Liberal Democrat group leader, Joan Stocker, said: “There has been a long tradition that, whenever nuclear issues have been discussed, decisions are taken by the full council on a free vote. Full council seems to me the right place to do it.”

Labour leader Coun Stewart Young said legal advice indicated that the decision was one for the cabinet alone.

Whatever the outcome, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says it may be 2025 before a decision is taken on where a repository should be. It is unlikely to open until 2040.

Copeland leader Elaine Woodburn, said: “We have offered the county council the opportunity to work in partnership with us, as we believe this is a sensible and logical way to move forward.

“As 70 per cent of the country’s nuclear waste is housed in Copeland, we need to be at the heart of any partnership and wherever the waste is eventually located will have implications for the borough and its residents,” she added.

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