18/12/2008 - NDA donates first £5m to Copeland Community Fund : Cumbria County Council

The first payment of £5m has been made into a community fund which will benefit people in Copeland for the service they provide to the nation by hosting the Low Level Waste Repository near the village of Drigg.

The Copeland Community Fund was agreed in December 2007 to recognise the unique part a community plays in hosting a low-level nuclear waste storage facility. It is unrelated to the current without-commitment expressions of interest that have been made in Cumbria to explore whether to host a geological disposal facility for higher activity radioactive waste in the UK.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority agreed to pay an initial endowment of £10m, the first half of which has now been paid, and will then pay £1.5million a year into the fund for every year that the new vault 9 takes waste. The payments will create a sustainable fund used for investment in local socio-economic and environmental projects. There is also a commitment to allocate £50,000 for the parish of Drigg and Carleton for each year that the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority makes a payment for depositing waste in Vault 9.

The fund, for which Cumbria County Council is the accountable body, will be administered by the Copeland Community Fund Project Board. The Project Board currently has five members: Cllr Elaine Woodburn, Leader of Copeland Borough Council (Chair of Project Board); Cllr Tim Knowles, cabinet member responsible for nuclear issues at Cumbria County Council; Cllr Tony Markley of Cumbria County Council; Cllr David Moore, Leader of the Conservative Group at Copeland Borough Council; and John Clarke, Commercial Director of Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The board will be seeking two independent members from the private or voluntary sector in the New Year.

Cllr Elaine Woodburn said:
"We campaigned long and hard for this fund to be set up, and I am delighted that it is now in place. The fund committee is now looking at how best the fund can be used to ensure that the people of Copeland get the maximum benefit from the funding we have secured. It is important to emphasise that all partners see it as crucial that the benefits of the fund are available for well into the future. This is not so much a short-term fund, but a long-term investment."

Cllr Tim Knowles said:
"This is a key moment in a long process which will have long-term benefits for the people of Copeland. There have been no decisions yet on where the money will be spent, but we do know that we want the ability to invest in projects for years to come. The fund needs to be sustainable - so it won't all be spent at once. The local community will be living with the waste facility near Drigg for years, so they need to be reaping the rewards for years too."

Bob Churchill, the NDA’s Head of socio-economics said:
“The establishment of this fund recognise the important national contribution communities in Copeland make in hosting the national low-level waste repository. As the fund develops it will be able to make a valuable long-term contribution to the social, environmental and economic wellbeing of the area.”

Copeland Borough Council and Cumbria County Council worked together with the MP for Copeland, Jamie Reed, and the NDA to get Government agreement for the fund.