The West Cumbria MRWS Partnership
The West Cumbria MRWS Partnership was set up by Allerdale Borough Council, Copeland Borough Council and Cumbria County Council to ensure that a wide range of community interests were involved in discussions. Its role was to give the Councils its opinions on the issues that would be involved in moving to the next stage of the MRWS process with the Government. The Partnership itself was not taking any decisions - its role was an advisory one of fact-finding and research gathering.
Partnership meetings were independently managed and reported by 3KQ, so that no one view dominated and proceedings were fairly recorded. Members of the public were able to attend these meetings to observe discussions and ask questions.
The Government provided funding to cover the costs of the Partnership’s work.
The membership criteria for the Partnership were that an organisation must:
- Hold a substantive interest in Copeland and/or Allerdale and the impact a geological disposal facility might have on the wider area.
- Represent a formally constituted body or community of interest whose views are not already represented on the Partnership.
- Be willing to operate within the Terms of Reference and working agreement of the Partnership.
Additionally, the Partnership contracted expert technical assistance from time to time to complement the experience of its members.
Membership included:
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 | ||
Observing Members were official bodies that sat on the Partnership to provide advice and support when requested by full members to do so. They did not take part in making Partnership decisions. Observing members included:
Committee on Radioactive Waste Management
Department of Energy and Climate Change
Environment Agency
Isle of Man Government
Nuclear Decommissioning Authority
Nuclear Installations Inspectorate
West Cumbria Sites Stakeholder Group
Others who were invited to be members (but declined) included:
Greenpeace
Friends of the Earth West Cumbria
Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (CORE)
> View next page 'What happened'