By Phil Coleman

Last updated 11:42, Friday, 18 April 2008

A MASSIVE new vault will be built for the storage of nuclear waste at Drigg near Sellafield, county councillors ruled yesterday.

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Cumbria County Council’s development control committee gave its final approval to the scheme after a heated debate over a claim that the site’s owners had attempted to “bribe” the local community with funding.

The new vault – the ninth on the site – will be 5.5m deep, 185m long and 137m wide.

It will extend the life of the 50-year-old repository by eight years, taking two thirds of the low level waste to be stored there from Sellafield.

Though councillors accepted the need for the new facility, there was heated debate over the bribery claim made by the Labour Ulverston East councillor Wendy Kolbe.

She said the application should have been decided by the full council.

Her “bribe” accusation was a reference to a Community Fund, worth up to £25m, which is to be paid to Copeland by the Drigg site’s owners the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).

Its payment was conditional on the county council approving the ninth vault.

Ms Kolbe said: “It appears that all we’re considering here is the amount of the bribe and the money being put forward to Copeland Borough Council, and whether to accept that settlement.

“To me this is an area which needs further consideration by the county council as a whole.”

Maryport’s Labour councillor, Bill Cameron, supported the application but he too had concerns, saying: “The thing I do decry is that money has been talked about. It should never have been mentioned in any way by the NDA.”

Allerdale’s Moorclose Labour councillor Gerald Humes said: “It’s irrelevant whether you get £2m or £50m.

“I have concerns that the planning process is being taken out of our hands. Local MPs have openly encouraged this process with the NDA. We’re being steered away from decision making.”

He said he had difficulty deciding on the application because of references in the papers to what he called an “inducement” – a reference to the Community Fund.

Gosforth and Ennerdalecouncillor Norman Clarkson took issue with the claim that the NDA fund was a “bribe”. He said: “It clearly is not a bribe,” adding that the money was recognition for a facility that was a community benefit.

He added: “Copeland over the years has been bought by a crab sandwich and a pint of beer. Now, we’ve woken up and realised how much blight we have put up with.”

Fellow Labour councillor Archibald Ross, for Distington, agreed that the fund was recognition for the community but he said the planning committee was not supposed to take any notice of such financial issues.

Wetheral’s Conservative councillor John Robinson said he too objected to the bribe claim. Councillors voted to approve the application, though councillor Kolbe abstained from the vote.