Life comes at you fast when you are the minister for energy security and net zero. One minute you are part of a government department responsible for dealing with nuclear waste. The next, the trading arm of the nuclear decommissioning body which forms part of your department says it is looking at the possibility of locating a nuclear waste disposal facility in your own backyard.
No wonder Graham Stuart, the Conservative MP for Beverley and Holderness, has already shifted position on the issue since news first broke at the end of last month about Nuclear Waste Services identifying South West Holderness as a potential place to construct the UK’s first underground disposal facility capable of handling higher active radioactive waste.
Nuclear waste disposal in Holderness: a meaningful say?
Before any of a scheduled series of public drop-in events had been held, Stuart launched a petition calling for a referendum on the idea. At the time, he said:
“Nuclear Waste Services tells me that any nuclear waste facility in South Holderness could only go ahead with public consent but not how that consent will be measured.
“Well, the people of Holderness deserve a final say on our future. That doesn’t mean a telephone survey, it doesn’t mean a few meetings in village halls, important as those are. We should have a meaningful say in the future of our area and before we start talking about anything else, we need a copper-bottomed guarantee that we will have a referendum on the nuclear waste facility.”
By hosting the petition on his own website, some opposition politicians were quick to question whether, in reality, it was actually a data-gathering exercise in the run-up to a general election.
However, within a week, Stuart had seemingly abandoned the idea of letting people have their say through his petition by publicly supporting a move by two local Conservative councillors calling on East Riding of Yorkshire Council (ERYC) to withdraw completely from the process. By now, he was claiming:
“The people in Holderness have made clear their opposition to these plans.”
With such a hot political potato suddenly landing in his own constituency, some argue there’s a big conflict of interest with his role in a department promoting the disposal of the UK’s nuclear waste.
Motion for a formal withdrawal
Government policy covering public consultation on so-called Geological Disposal Facilities (GDF) does allow the principal local authority (in this case, ERYC) the right to withdraw the identified potential local community at any time. It’s the hook councillors Lyn Healing and Sean MacMaster have latched on to in an attempt to halt things even though their own council’s inward investment team initially invited Nuclear Waste Services to start the early consultation process after an approach by the company last year.
They say councillors were kept in the dark on the issue until only relatively recently and were offered no opportunity to vote on it. Their motion requesting a formal withdrawal is expected to go before a full meeting of the council on 21 February.
Meanwhile, at the final drop-in event held in the village hall in Burstwick, the public mood was politely hostile to the idea of having a nuclear waste dump in the neighbourhood.
Holderness residents make their position clear
Outside the hall is Lynn Massey-Davis from the newly-formed Holderness GDF Action Group. She invites people to leave their opinion on a post-it note stuck on a board. The vast majority appear to be against. An activist for just three weeks, she said:
“I am really proud that we started this group and that other people joined in and worked so hard over such a short period of time to turn the tide of opinion towards considering removing this threat to us all.
“This is an unprecedented level of community action in such a small place and shows why we are unique and special.
“Initially, the politicians told us we had to wait while they sat on the fence, fortunately they changed their mind.
“The first time I went into the village centre and someone came up to me with tears in their eyes. I hugged her and I knew we had to work hard to end this uncertainty for everyone.
“We asked awkward questions about where the political mandate came from at council, and when we found out that there hadn’t been one because officers had bypassed elected members, it became easier for us to force these cracks open.
“I have faith that our local elected representatives will put aside party divisions and vote on 21 February to end this misery once and for all.
“The poll that Graham Stuart was asking for seemed to me a little strange since as Minister for Energy Security and Net Zero, he would have known the legislation which limited the power to seek a withdrawal to the interested party and NWS.
“Even if his petition had gone forward, it wouldn’t have made any difference whatsoever. I guess he realised that and he’s been big enough to join us and we are really grateful.”
Cross-party scrutiny required
Time will tell whether the motion succeeds in stopping the process in its tracks.
Councillor Steve Gallant, the opposition Labour group leader on ERYC, said:
“We have yet to see the motion because it is being published later this week. As such, we will be examining the wording very carefully before deciding whether to give it our support.”
