To submit the following question on notice by Councillor R.Ll. Jones to the Leader of the Council :-
“The Wylfa B consultation has now commenced and we have, as a County Council, had several meetings with the developer explaining all the benefits it will bring to this island.
Although local residents are wanting jobs they are still very concerned with the risks and the need to look after the waste generated by a nuclear power station for Anglesey. In order to balance things up I am calling for a SEMINAR to be arranged between this Council and representatives opposed to the building of Wylfa B and asking if you and your majority group will support this request. Local residents need to have a voice in this consultation and be fully briefed, up to now we appear to have only had the foreign based developers from Germany, they pulled out, and now from Japan to give us their opinions. Neither of these countries want to build nuclear on their own soil.”
Minutes:
The following question submitted on notice by Councillor R. Llewelyn Jones was put to the Leader of the Council:
“The Wylfa B consultation has now commenced and we have, as a County Council, had several meetings with the developer explaining all the benefits to this Island. Although local residents are wanting jobs they are still very concerned with the risks and the need to look after the waste generated by a nuclear power station for Anglesey. In order to balance things up I am calling for a Seminar to be arranged between this Council and representatives opposed to the building of Wylfa B and asking if you and your majority group will support this request. Local residents need to have a voice in this consultation and be fully briefed; up to now we appear to have only had the foreign based developers from Germany, they pulled out, and now from Japan, to give us their opinions. Neither of these countries want to build nuclear on their own soil.”
The Leader of the Council replied by saying that the Council as a supporter of the project as well as those who object to Wylfa Newydd are all stakeholders within the process and as such are part of the consultation and briefings being undertaken by Horizon. The decision will be made at Westminster. A meeting of the Stakeholder Group was held the previous evening at which local residents were represented by a number of organisations. Information is being disseminated and objectors have the right of response in the same way as the Council. He believed the approach to be balanced and treats everyone equally. Whilst he was aware that there is a difference of opinion across the Island he could not see that a seminar would deliver consensus. It is the developer who is able to provide the information – for those who object as well as for those who are supporters of the project. He said that he could therefore see no benefit in conducting a separate seminar with objectors.
As a supplementary question, Councillor R. Llewelyn Jones said that there is greater power in Wales than in England to influence nuclear build due to the way in which it is able to deal with the Development Consent Order and those plans in Wales can be challenged prior to their submission to the Secretary of State. This is the Authority’s opportunity to state that it objects to the development wholesale until such time as it is given details of how the waste is to be dealt with. He questioned whether it was legal to allow a company to commence site clearance in preparation for a large structure before it has submitted credible evidence of how it will dispose of very dangerous industrial nuclear waste. He asked the Leader to contact the First Minister and to establish what he and his Government are doing to ensure that Anglesey is not being left alone in calling for a clear understanding of what is going to happen to present and future nuclear waste on the Island. Local people deserve and must have a clear answer to this question prior to going too far down the nuclear path.
The Leader of the Council said that energy policy has not been delegated to the Welsh Government but Corum has stated that the Welsh Government has the right to develop a policy on waste; he was not aware that that as yet has been developed. The Corporate Director of Sustainable Development reported that representatives of Corum, as the body directly responsible for dealing with nuclear waste have visited the Council. The issue of nuclear waste needs to be addressed specifically in the consultation; however there is a role for the Welsh Government in terms of formulating a policy to take matters forward.