STUDENT-STYLE accommodation is planned to house an influx of nuclear workers to the area, a meeting has heard.

NuGen – the consortium behind plans for a new nuclear power station near Sellafield – told the Mirehouse meeting single-person temporary accommodation blocks are the most likely option to house 4,000 construction workers.

It is looking at an area of Mirehouse/Hensingham either side of the A595 to house the bulk of workers, and a new permanent train station is planned to transport them to the plant. Other sites at Corkickle (whose train station would also receive an upgrade), Egremont and Cleator Moor are also under consideration for smaller worker villages.

Fergus McMorrow, NuGen’s head of planning, told the meeting the firm is working on the proviso that of the 6,000 workers required during peak of the plant’s construction, 2,000 will be local and 4,000 will move into the area.

He said: “Some will move into permanent housing, but the bulk will be single-person student-style accommodation.

“Workers will come and go during different periods of the construction, and then there will be jobs for around 1,000 people once the plant is operational.

“South Whitehaven is the largest site we are looking at, and there has been strong support for it – and for making the train station permanent.

“And there are other jobs created by having these associated housing developments, in terms of maintaining, catering, cleaning,”

Those gathered discussed the impact on the Mirehouse estate of an influx of workers into a temporary camp, and how to best integrate workers into the community.

Whitehaven town councillor Jayne Laine expressed concern at a “them-and-us divide” between workers and residents. She added a temporary accommodation block “would not be aesthetically pleasing”.

Stuart Trevaskis, who owns a Mirehouse betting shop, added: “What would would be left when they have all gone?”

NuGen said the views expressed will be incorporated into its plans ahead of next year’s public consultation.

Pending a positive funding decision in 2018, NuGen says construction will begin in 2020. The first reactor would go on stream in 2024 and all three, with a combined 3.4GW capacity that will deliver seven per cent of the UK’s electricity, operational by 2026.