Coun Craig Leyland, Leader of East Lindsey District Council

National World

Coun Craig Leyland, leader of East Lindsey District Council, issues a statement on why he has joined the fight against a nuclear waste dump in the area.

Transcript

00:00In 2021, East Lindsay District Council was invited by Radioactive Waste Management, now

00:10Nuclear Waste Services, to join a working group to explore whether the former gas terminal

00:15at Thethlethorpe would be a suitable location for a ground disposal facility.

00:19Leinster County Council had already accepted the same invitation.

00:23Constitutionally, this was a decision for the Executive to make.

00:27Recognising the potential and wide-ranging impact of such a proposal, the Overview Committee

00:32was asked to consider the invitation as part of their pre-decision scrutiny, the outcome

00:37of which was fed back to the Executive Board, that being we should engage in the process.

00:42That meeting took place on October 19, 2021.

00:47We entered the process in good faith, believing it was better to be involved and influence

00:51the potential major infrastructure development that could have far-ranging impacts, both

00:57positive and negative, for our residents and communities.

01:01We have actively engaged in the process as a member of the community partnership.

01:07We now know that Nuclear Waste Services have had to review their potential use of the redundant

01:11Thethlethorpe gas terminal, and late last year they instigated a search for a new area

01:16of focus, site entrance for the offshore facility.

01:21Their findings were made public on Wednesday 29 January 2025.

01:27The surface area of focus is described as land between Gaten-le-Marche and Great Carlton.

01:33The potential site covers some 4 square kilometres.

01:36Clearly, this is land that has not had any previous industrial use, and is prime agricultural

01:42land, nestling close to the Lincolnshire Walds AONB.

01:48This is in stark contrast to the brownfield location at Thethlethorpe.

01:52The Executive of East Lindsay District Council is now of the view that this change in location

01:58of the area of focus severely tests the original rationale for our involvement in the GDF siting

02:03process.

02:05We also know of the understandable widespread concern of the proposed National Grid Pylon

02:10consultation currently underway.

02:14ELDC shares the concern of many residents and communities regarding the industrialisation

02:20of the Lincolnshire countryside.

02:23This brings into question how we can support a campaign to object to the environmental

02:28harm of the pylons, and yet keep an open mind regarding the surface entry site for the GDF

02:34that will scar several kilometres of Lincolnshire farmland on the margin of the Lincolnshire

02:38Walds.

02:40The use of the brownfield site on the coast, where a former facility had operated for over

02:4540 years, without local objection, is completely different to a greenfield site in open countryside.

02:52This new site would also need attendant connecting infrastructure in the same sensitive countryside

02:59that the pylons would be scarring.

03:02We also need to consider the progress that the community partnership has made in being

03:07the liaison between Nuclear Waste Services and the wider community.

03:11As the leader of ELDC, I have had to acknowledge at full council that the engagement process

03:17has been clumsy, interrupted, and not generally seen as helpful.

03:22The four-year timescale to this point is disappointing and frustrating in equal measure.

03:29It is only in recent months that the flow of more relevant information has been appropriate,

03:34but both Nuclear Waste Services and the community partnership have had to recognise that the

03:39engagement and consultation process has not been effective or informative in the way we

03:45had anticipated or hoped for.

03:47It has only achieved one thing, and that is to unnecessarily antagonise and distress our

03:53residents and communities.

03:56With this in mind, and after listening to community voices and our own council voices

04:00at parish, district and county level, I will recommend at the next appropriate ELDC Executive

04:06Meeting that we unilaterally withdraw from the community partnership and exit the process

04:12to site a GDF in East Lindsay.

04:15Even if ELDC withdraws, Lincolnshire County Council can still remain in the process.

04:20We will urge Lincolnshire County Council to initiate a binding test of public support

04:24by 2027.

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