National parks ‘could house nuclear waste’
PLANS to store nuclear waste beneath some of England’s most beautiful countryside have sparked a row with rural campaigners.
A committee of MPS has given the go-ahead to government plans that could see waste buried deep in vaults under the country’s national parks.
Campaigners said the decision put “our treasured landscapes under the threat of inappropriate and major development”.
England has 10 national parks, each with its own authority with two statutory duties – to conserve its countryside, and to allow people to enjoy them.
The Government has launched a search for an area to site an underground radioactive waste facility and set out the framework for making planning decisions on the plan in England.
MPS on the Commons business, energy and industrial strategy committee backed the Government’s approach, and decided against calling for national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty to be excluded.
The cross-party group said: “It is right for safety matters to prevail over environmental concerns in this case.”
Typical infrastructure would see the waste stored in vaults and tunnels located deep underground.
Richard Harrington, the business and industry minister, told the MPS: “I am not saying we should have them on national parks, but it would be very wrong to exclude them at the moment in this big policy statement.”
Ruth Bradshaw, a spokesman for the Campaign for National Parks, said the plans went against a government commitment to protect rural areas, adding: “There is a strong and long-established presumption against major development in these areas.”
Emma Marrington, the senior rural campaigner at the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: “We know that where such major development takes place we destroy beautiful landscapes and ruin our opportunity to pass on a beautiful piece of countryside.”
A department for business, energy and industrial strategy spokesman said it welcomed the input of the select committee and that it was considering the recommendations before publishing a response to “in due course”.