Waste management company Augean is seeking to use a site in the village of King's Cliffe, Northamptonshire, to store up to 250,000 tonnes of radioactive debris a yearCouncillors in an area at the centre of a scandal linking toxic materials with birth defects are expected to approve the use of a local landfill site for dumping nuclear waste, in response to an application from a company with a blemished environmental record.The planning committee at Northamptonshire county council is to rule on Tuesday in a landmark case in which Augean, a waste management company, is seeking to use a repository in the village of King's Cliffe to store as much as 250,000 tonnes of radioactive debris a year.If the local authority agrees to the request, it is likely to influence planning decisions in other areas, such as Cumbria, where waste companies want to extend landfill facilities for the disposal of nuclear materials.King's Cliffe residents, who have formed a pressure group called Waste Watchers, are furious about the proposal, which has been given a green light by planning officers and the Environment Agency.Ann Garratt, whose house overlooks the landfill site, formally known as the East Northants Resource Management Facility, calls the whole idea "bloody awful", saying that no company's promises can be relied on. "We have already seen the road have to be resurfaced because the liquid dripping out of the back of lorries dissolved the tarmac."Clare Langan, who lives in the centre of King's Cliffe, is equally opposed to the scheme. "I doubt [the potential
health risk] would affect me, or even perhaps my
children, but who knows after that? They are offering us a 'community fund' of £5 per tonne but who wants a couple of tennis courts and a five-a-side football pitch when nuclear waste is sitting at the end of the road?"Josien Chalmers, who bought a house close to the former clay pit before it was licensed for any kind of waste disposal, has seen the site used first fo ...
Try our segmented RSS Feeds
