23/10/03 - Minister lobbied over nuclear rundown

A Government Minister was urged today to help ensure that the Government does all in its power to aid the economy of West Cumbria as the nuclear industry is run down.

Leader of Cumbria County Council, Councillor Rex Toft, the MP for Copeland Jack Cunningham, MP for Workington Tony Cunningham, and leaders of Copeland and Allerdale Borough Councils, had a meeting with Nigel Griffiths, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Small Businesses. 

They told the Minister that all the local authorities and the MPs were working to the same agenda on the economic future of West Cumbria, where the nuclear industry is expected to shed thousands of jobs in the next few years.

Councillor Toft had earlier echoed the widespread welcome for the Government’s decision to base the headquarters of the Nuclear Decommissioning Agency in West Cumbria. The Minister was urged by the MPs and councillors that the NDA should be given the duty, rather than merely the power, to invest in the socio-economic structure of the area.

It was also impressed on the Minister that the Government needed to respond to the general level of unemployment in West Cumbria and that major investment would be needed to strengthen its economy.

Mr Griffiiths had earlier made a keynote speech at the first day of a two-day conference at Westlakes Research Instituteentitled Nuclear Clean-up: Skills, Education and Environmental Challenges.