Fury over switch of possible nuclear waste dump site to village land near Louth
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East Lincolnshire has long been identified as one of three potential locations for the dump, known as a GDF (geological disposal site).
And the government agency, Nuclear Waste Services (NWS), charged with finding a suitable area, has focused its attention on the former gas terminal site, operated by Conoco, within the coastal village of Theddlethorpe.
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Hide AdBut now NWS has announced that it is looking inland and “beyond Theddlethorpe”. Instead, it is “prioritising” largely agricultural land to the north of the A157 road, between the villages of Gayton le Marsh and Great Carlton and south-west of Gayton Wind Farm.


A network of underground vaults and tunnels would transfer shipments of waste to a sealed storage area under the seabed which would extend 22 kilometres from the coast.
NWS insists nothing has been decided and has promised to keep all residents informed. A series of webinars and public drop-in events is already under way and will continue throughout February.
However, opponents of the dump, led by Conservative MP Victoria Atkins, are furious and are calling for a public vote on the entire scheme.
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Hide AdMs Atkins said: “I have opposed the threat of a nuclear waste dump on the Lincolnshire coast since the proposal came to light several years ago.


"In that time, residents have had to live with the uncertainty, worry and financial costs of having this monstrous carbuncle threatened in their area.
"People have been left in limbo and have had their house prices severely impacted by these proposals.
"This latest news will be very distressing for the residents in and around the area. Rest assured, I will be meeting NWS in the coming week to continue to put pressure on them to move their focus away from Lincolnshire entirely.
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Hide Ad"In addition, I will continue to raise the matter with the Secretary of State and hold him to his commitment of a ‘test of public support’.


"This change in focus will mean a potential site being less than five miles from the Lincolnshire Wolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and could now be closer to the historic town of Louth than it is to the coast, where the waste would actually be stored. It would also be moving the focus away from a ‘brownfield’ site to farmland.
“This latest move has only strengthened my resolve. I am again calling for a public vote within the year. Local people must be able to set their own destiny and to have certainty.”
The campaign group, Guardians Of The East Coast, has also lambasted the latest proposal, claiming the switch has been made because the Theddlethorpe site would not be large enough.
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Hide AdChairman Mike Crookes said the fresh site would span 900 acres of agricultural land, including at least one farm. He called on Lincolnshire County Council to withdraw their apparent engagement with the dump scheme process.
"The council has expressed its outrage at agricultural land being taken for solar farms and pylons by National Grid,” Mr Crookes said.
"But it seems perfectly happy with a square mile of agricultural land being used to bury high-level nuclear waste, including weapons-grade plutonium.
"When the project was first announced, the council said it was policy to make use of ‘brownfield’ sites such as the gas terminal.
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Hide Ad"But if it has a policy of opposing the industrial use of agricultural land, why is it apparently facilitating this project?”
Another group firmly against the nuclear waste dump is the Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA), whose secretary Richard Outram described the fresh site as “worse than the original”.
"The news will have come as a tremendous shock to the residents of Gayton le Marsh and Great Carlton, where the threat of a dump suddenly appears writ large.
"Those residents are already up in arms and, doubtless in the coming days, new protest groups will be formed to represent the people affected.
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Hide Ad"It is important to emphasise that the decision on the final site for a GDF is still a long way off. There is still time to organise and fight back.”
Coun Travis Hesketh, who represents the ward of Withern and Theddlethorpe on East Lindsey District Council, said residents were demanding a public vote – and this year, not in 2027 as previously promised.
A previous survey revealed that 85 per cent of local residents were against the dump, which would store nuclear waste beneath up to 1,000 metres of solid rock until its radioactivity naturally decayed.
However, NWS is hoping to win people over and has set up a community partnership group to fully explain the scheme.
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Hide AdIt also insists that the GDF would not be created unless it had the backing of the local community.
Corhyn Parr, chief executive officer, said: “A GDF is a safe, secure and long-term solution for the most hazardous radioactive waste.
"But construction would only start when a suitable site is identified, the community has confirmed its willingness to host the facility and all the necessary consents and permits have been obtained.
"We will continue our engagement with local people and stakeholders, and we will be holding events to talk about what this means for the area.”
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Hide AdNWS says the Gayton site has been “identified using a range of information, such as geological data, areas of environmental protection and consideration of built-up areas”.
It would “minimise the number of included residential properties” and, where possible, it would avoid tunnelling beneath urban areas such as Mablethorpe and Theddlethorpe.
NWS now plans “more in-depth studies and investigations to help experts understand and consider the potential for the area to safely and securely host a GDF”.
The two other locations under consideration are in Cumbria, which has a long-standing connection to the nuclear industry, primarily through a large plant at Sellafield, formerly known as Windscale.