UPDATE

If you have registered with the IPC (now NID) you will know that the process has begun, and a preliminary meeting has taken place. Hopefully you will also have sent further information. Issue specific hearings on health and transport matters will take place in late October.
many thanks to all who have signed up to be part of this iomportant process.
For further information on what is going on, click here

Saturday 7th January - About 150 residents from King's Cliffe and surrounding villages met in the centre of King's Cliffe in a protest against the announcement by Augean that it had begun to dump LLW in spite of the on-going legal challenge. Led by a drummer and a pantomime horse, local people joined in a walk around the village before dispersing. The protest was intended to show the company and the planning authorities that the issue is still vey much alive in the minds of local people.

On Tuesday 29th November, the Court of Appeal gave leave for an appeal to be heard in the case brought by a King’s Cliffe resident against the Secretary of State over the dumping of LLW at the King’s Cliffe site. Augean, which had until then agreed to withhold dumping until the legal process had been completed, ignored requests to continue this policy and announced that it would go ahead and start disposing of LLW notwithstanding. Augean argued that it could always dig the waste up again if the ruling went against it.

Unimpressed by this unlikely scenario, and In order to prevent a possible infringement from taking place, residents of King’s Cliffe and surrounding villages decided to mount a blockade of the site. This took place on Friday 2nd December.

About 25 residents arrived at the site at 5.30am, before the gates opened, and set themselves up in the entrance. In order to delay the passage of lorries bringing LLW for as long as possible, four residents clipped themselves into steel tubes inserted in barrels of concrete. Great care was taken to ensure that traffic along the road was alerted, and no mishaps took place. The police were called in by Augean about two hours later and there was a good-humoured and entirely peaceful stand-off before a specialist team could arrive with equipment to ‘free’ those who were clipped on. The last residents were extracted at about 1pm, leaving a small group to continue the protest by the roadside. Reporters and film crews were present throughout. Six residents who had ignored police instructions to move were arrested, and later released. It is not known whether any LLW was brought to the site in the afternoon.

For press release, click here

 In the name of Localism, our referendums, petitions, and the rejection of nuclear waste at King's Cliffe by Northamprtonshire County Council, have shown Mr Pickles the strength of local feeling...
In the name of the government's own nuclear waste strategy we have shown Mr Huhne that 98% of votes against nuclear waste at King's Cliffe does not amount to 'public acceptability'...
In the name of European, UK and county waste policy, we have shown that burying nuclear waste at King's Cliffe, over 90 miles from the nearest source, does not abide by the Proximity Principle...
In the name of the Environment Agency's policy we have shown that burying nuclear waste at King's Cliffe on top of a major aquifer that is a source of local drinking water does not represent an environmentally safe solution...

Is that enough?

To make sure, we need your help.

Policy inherited from the previous government says that nuclear waste can be buried in any landfill.

Yes; there is a landfill very close to you!

Don't wait for nuclear waste to come to you; help us stop it NOW!

1. Write to Mr Pickles, Mr Huhne, your m.p., newspapers and media to
  express your views.
2. If you live along the confimed route of some of the waste (Southampton
  to King's Cliffe - A34/A43), write to your parish and district council.
3. If you have legal expertise, and are willing to represent us in an appeal
  against any decision going against us (pro bono, i'm afraid!), please
  contact this website.
4. Sign this online petition, now:
  http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/saynotollw/
5. Spread the word on Facebook, Twitter, carrier pigeon, anyway you can
  think of.
  http://twitter.com/ldaction
  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Local-Democracy-In-
  Action/177754475600827

Thank you for your support.

November 3rd 2011 - A High Court judge has dismissed the challenge by a King's Cliffe resident against Comunities Secretary, Eric Pickles. Mr Pickles had previously overturned the decision by Northamptonshire County Council to refuse permission for the disposal of nuclear waste in the local landfill.
However the judge did grant an injunction against Augean, preventing the company from disposing of LLW for another four weeks while residents decided on whether to seek an appeal.
So far as we know, no nuclear waste has yet been buried in the landfill.

Next month Augean will present its applications to the Infrastructure Planing Commission for extensions to its permit until 2016, and then 2026, together with opening up more void space at the site. Given the lack of applications coming forward from other sites to take this material, villagers are concerned that this will confirm King's Cliffe as the national waste site for these levels of LLW, and that waste could even be brought from as far away as Sellafield, the main producer of LLW, a distance of over 250 miles.

We have just been informed that the Secretary of State has ruled in favour of the appeal and has overturned the decision by Northamptonshire County Council to oppose the disposal of nuclear waste in the King's Cliffe landfill.

Wastewatchers do not wish to comment in detail on this ruling until we have had time to properly consider it.

Our initial reaction, however, is one of surprise and disappointment that the wishes of local people appear to have been ignored, especially by a Secretary of State who has firmly declared his support for local democratic decision-making. In overturning the decision of the County Council, and the wishes of all local government organs, he has hardly demonstrated the level of commitment expected from one who is trying to steer a Localism Bill through Parliament.

We are also surprised that the government should consider the forcible disposal of nuclear waste in an area so evidently unprepared for it a positive approach to dealing with the decommissioning of nuclear facilities. When the Government’s own strategy puts ‘public acceptability’ as the first principle to be followed in deciding locations for disposal, it seems that words count for nothing.

King’s Cliffe will now be, ipso facto, the national nuclear low level waste site for the South of England and the Midlands, even though it lies 90 miles from the nearest site. That does not seem to us to be either a fair or a sensible solution.

Wastewatchers will comment further on the decision at a later date, and will consider what options are available to us to challenge it.

For the full text of the Secretary of State's ruling, and the Inspector's report, click here.