East Lindsey District Council members are to be asked to agree that, after years of negotiation, the council should withdraw from discussions about siting a ground disposal facility for radioactive waste in the county.
Councillor Craig Leyland says changes in the possible site for such a facility, originally planned to be the former Gas Terminal at Theddlethorpe, had now switched to farmland between Gayton le Marsh and Great Carlton.
He said: “Clearly, this is land that has not had any previous industrial use and is prime agricultural land nestling close to the Lincolnshire Wolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This is in stark contrast to the brownfield location at Theddlethorpe.
“The Executive of ELDC is now of the view that this change in location and Area of Focus severely tests the original rationale for our involvement in the GDF siting process.
“We also know of the understandable widespread concern for the proposed National Grid pylon consultation currently under way. ELDC shares the concern of many residents and communities regarding the industrialisation of the Lincolnshire countryside.
“This brings into question how can we support a campaign to object to the environmental harm of the pylons and yet keep an open mind regarding the surface entry site for the GDF that will scar several kilometres of Lincolnshire farmland on the margins of the Lincolnshire Wolds.
“The use of a brownfield site on the coast where a former facility had operated for over 40 years without local objection is completely different to a green field site in open countryside. The new site would also need attendant connecting infrastructure in the same sensitive countryside that the pylons would be scarring.”
