Lincolnshire County Council leaves nuclear waste community partnership

Lincolnshire County Council’s new Executive has voted to withdraw from Nuclear Waste Services’ Community Partnership – killing plans to store nuclear waste in the county.

New council Leader, Cllr Sean Matthews, has announced the move which has dealt the deathblow for plans to site a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) in Lincolnshire.

Plans that earmarked Theddlethorpe on the coast as a possible site for underground nuclear waste storage were first raised four years ago.

Cllr Matthews: “To everyone who was worried about these plans, I’m proud to say that you can now rest easy. We’re out of the community partnership and the nuclear nightmare is over.

“We have listened. We have acted. We have done what we said we would.”

The decision on axing the council’s membership of the nuclear waste community partnership has been voted through unanimously by the county council’s Executive board today (Tuesday 3 June).

It followed last Thursday’s Overview and Scrutiny Management Board meeting which discussed a report outlining the proposals for a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) in Lincolnshire, and heard speeches from:

• David Fannin, the Chairman of the Community Partnership
• Seth Kybird, the CEO of Nuclear Waste Services (NWS), who are behind the proposals
• Mike Crookes, chairman of Guardians of the East Coast (GOTEC), a campaign group against the proposals

Local county councillor Bayleigh Robinson, who represents Saltfleet and the Cotes, also spoke against the proposals requesting a full withdraw from the partnership.

Cllr Matthews continued: “Residents have been very vocal about not wanting this to happen. They have been trying to get someone, anyone, to listen to them about the very natural fears they had around this plan. Well, the new council is listening.

“On day one as leader of the Reform UK group on Lincolnshire County Council I started the necessary democratic process that has led us to today’s decision. Following this process to the letter means that we can be sure the entire sorry saga won’t drag on for even longer.

“Although the idea is now dead and buried, I don’t want to take the credit for ending this nightmare. The credit must go to Travis Hesketh, Mike Crookes and the team who campaigned, on behalf of their neighbours and friends, against a nuclear waste plan that plunged their community into uncertainty.

“Now, Lincolnshire people can get back to living their lives, assured that this nuclear nonsense is over.”

A nuclear waste disposal facility in Lincolnshire, a timeline

2021 – Radioactive Waste Management wrote to Lincolnshire County Council asking to explore Lincolnshire as the potential location for a geological disposal facility. The council responded asking for more details about the proposals, which were earmarked for a brownfield site in Theddlethorpe, East Lindsey.

2021- The council’s executive agreed to explore the opportunity – making it clear it was not supporting a geological disposal facility – and accepted the invitation to join an initial working group to find out more.

2022 – Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) was created and took over the project from Radioactive Waste Management. A ‘Community Partnership’ formed with membership from both Lincolnshire County Council and East Lindsey District Council. 

2025 – NWS announced that their area of focus has changed to an area of open land between Gayton le Marsh and Great Carlton.
2025 - Reform UK took control of Lincolnshire County Council in the local elections and enacted the council’s urgency protocol to have the membership of the Community Partnership reassessed as quickly as possible.