Wylfa Newydd doubts won’t change county housing stock plans
COUNCIL AIMS TO ADD 500 HOMES OVER NEXT 30 YEARS
COUNCIL officers have reiterated their plan to grow Anglesey’s housing stock by at least 500 over the coming decades – despite uncertainty over Wylfa Newydd.
Anglesey is one of 11 Welsh authorities that still owns its own housing stock for rent, of which it currently holds over 3,800.
In 2015 councillors rubberstamped ambitious plans to increase this by at least 500 over the next 30 years, planning that around two thirds would be new builds with the remaining third bought in from private ownership.
But despite the decision being made at a time when preparations for Wylfa Newydd were in full force, the island’s housing chief has confirmed that they remain steadfast in their ambition of matching and potentially exceeding this target.
The nuclear plant was expected to generate approximately 1,000 permanent jobs
when up and running, with an influx of thousands of workers needed to build the multi billion pound development.
A report published last year warned that “positive relationships” would have to be forged with private landlords in a bid to avoid a “housing crisis” with concerns that well-paid workers in need of accommodation could push up rental prices locally.
As a result, the authority was planning to “beef up” its house building programme to help alleviate any potential domino effect.
But despite uncertainty over the fate of any new nuclear development, the council’s head of housing services said that the council’s aims remained intact.
Ned Michael said: “We’re quite fortunate that, as a council we are being seen as forward thinking in terms of our housing programme.
“We have a dedicated team set up to develop social housing and have 19 homes currently being built with work on another 33 set to start over the coming year, there is some real momentum at the moment.”
As part of its delivery plan for 2019/20, the authority promised to build 25 new homes and bring in another 15 into the authority’s stock, but efforts are already under way to match or even exceed this according to Mr Michael.
“We need to increase our housing stock, its as simple as that,” he said.
“To start off with, buying in existing homes was a quick way of getting the ball rolling
“But the appetite and vision from the very start has been to build new homes across the island,” Mr Michael added.
But he said it was important that the principle of affordable housing be seen as being beyond traditional social rental housing, and he was keen to see the authority assist in expanding the offering to assist those unable to afford to buy or rent on the open market in seeking quality affordable housing.
In a bid to further protect its stock, in 2016 councillors backed moves to scrap “Right to Buy” on the island, having lost around 3,100 properties since the scheme was introduced under the Thatcher government in 1980.
But according to officers, the authority faces a challenge - in part due to welfare reform, many on the waiting list were seeking either one or four bedroom homes.
Portfolio holder, councillor Alun Mummery said: “I think on Anglesey we were in a fortunate situation where our stock was in a generally good condition at the time, which made the decision easier in many ways.”
He added: “We know the market but its important that we now move forward and ensure there are quality homes or we’ll lose our young people from the island.
“It’s important for both the culture and language that we provide for them while, in a small way at least, also providing work.”
ALL nuclear fuel at the closed Wylfa power station on Anglesey should soon be off site. The last of the 90,000 nuclear fuel elements are being prepared for transporting to Cumbria by rail.
When these trains cease to run it will signal the end of freight trains on the North Wales line – at least for the time being.
The last nuclear reactor was switched off at Wylfa in December 2015 and the work of defuelling began. At the start of the process the two reactors contained 90,000 fuel elements.
Last autumn Magnox officials revealed staff at Wylfa were retrieving
1,000 fuel elements a week and shipping seven flasks a week.
Stuart Law, site director, said: “This is down to the highly skilled team who are working round the clock to support the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s mission of safely cleaning up the legacy from the earliest days of the UK’s nuclear industry.
“It takes 24 hours to fill a flask with approximately 150 used nuclear fuel elements. The flask is then cleaned in a huge washing machine and meticulous checks are made to ensure it is safe and compliant for onward transportation to Sellafield.”
He added once the reactors are empty, and all the fuel elements dispatched to Sellafield, over 99% of the site’s radiological hazard will have been removed.
Following the completion of the defuelling the site will move into its care and maintenance preparations phase which focuses on retrieving, treating and processing any wastes.
The flasks start their journey by road being taken from the Wylfa site to a siding off the main line at Valley. From there they are taken to Crewe and then along the West Coast main line to Carnforth and onto the Cumbrian Coast line for reprocessing.
Trains taking these flasks to the Cumbrian plant have been running in North Wales since the mid-1960s and initially ran to both Wylfa and Trawsfynydd with the trains being combined at Llandudno Junction.
The working, under BR sectorisation, was booked for locos drawn from the Trainload Coal fleet.
After privatisation of the railway, British Nuclear Fuels Ltd created Direct Rail Services (DRS) to take over British Rail’s handling of nuclear material.
For many years it used elderly, but serviceable, freight locomotives to haul the flask wagons at 60mph along the North Wales line.
In recent years DRS has purchased new locomotives and those currently in use are brand new, fuel efficient Class 68s which are capable of 100mph.
The nuclear flask traffic is the last remaining freight service on the North Wales line following the closure of the aluminium plant at Holyhead which saw some products shipped out by rail, and the mothballing of the quarry sidings at Penmaenmawr.
Proposals to move slate waste from Blaenau Ffestiniog, container traffic from Holyhead and domestic waste from Llandudno Junction have not yet borne fruit.