Published at 11:11, Thursday, 26 April 2012

NUCLEAR and local authorities have again come under fire from Copeland MP Jamie Reed.

Adding to the criticism first aired in The Whitehaven News the day before the conference that anticipated community benefits were not being delivered quickly enough, Mr Reed said: “The key is – deliver on your promises.

“In my line of work, if I don’t deliver on my promises I face the sack. That’s right, that’s fair and that’s exactly the same standard to which I am now going every organisation in this room. More to the point, that’s precisely what 170,000 West Cumbrians expect and deserve.

“So what is the way forward? Unless partners act in concert to achieve our aims, then they will not be achieved. It follows that today’s event will be entirely pointless without an unambiguous declaration from partners (but from Nuclear Management Partners in particular) that they will now act to realise the ambitions that we have talked about today.”

On local government, Mr Reed said: “The childish tensions that permeate these organisations is both toxic and corrosive. More than this, it provides private agencies who are happy to sit on their hands with every excuse to do nothing.

“Where else in the country has a council repeatedly turned down the offer of significant investments in secondary education from successive governments?

“It is precisely because of this kind of activity and culture that we need Britain’s Energy Coast. Sadly, this is only one example of many. That said, few people have more skin in the game than our local authorities and I know they care passionately about this agenda.”

But the MP added: “The community will no longer tolerate the petty enmities of local government or its stubborn and baseless belief that it can achieve the transformation we seek despite all evidence to the contrary. Nor will it continue to endure empty words and false promises from other private and public sector agencies which claim to share our ambitions and then do little or nothing to help ensure that these ambitions are realised.”

NMP declined to publicly discuss the criticisms in detail. General manager Graham Campbell said: “We have heard Jamie’s call for concerted action and we will be working with him to discuss and resolve any issues that need to be addressed in our mutual ambition to create a prosperous and vibrant future for West Cumbria.”

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