Lib Dems challenge Labour on security threat from nuclear trains

Local Liberal Democrats condemn the threat to local security posed by controversial nuclear waste trains travelling through Islington - and challenge Islington's Labour MPs to do the same following shocking revelations of lax security surrounding these dangerous transports.

Last month, Islington's Liberal Democrat councillors voiced their opposition to trains carrying nuclear waste passing through our borough. The International Atomic Energy Agency has recognised the transport of nuclear material as the nuclear operation most vulnerable to terrorist attack or sabotage.

Last Wednesday, 19 July, a Daily Mirror reporter boarded a nuclear train at Brent Yard, depot, Cricklewood, carrying a fake bomb. Last Friday, 21 July, Islington-based Greenpeace published a timetable of the nuclear train routes, to make sure the government acts before

terrorists do. The timetable includes regular trips through Canonbury, Highbury & Islington and Caledonian Road & Barnsbury on the North London Line.

Lib Dem Councillor Terry Stacy says,

"To transport such waste through such a heavily populated area as Islington seems foolish at best. While we appreciate the good record the train companies have had in transporting this waste so far, if there were to be an accident or terrorist attack on one of these trains in the

middle of a place like Islington, the consequences would be devastating. We want to see these trains more sensibly routed to avoid such big population centres as much as possible."

As Tony Blair & Gordon Brown both support new nuclear power stations, pressure is mounting on local Labour MPs to say where they stand on the nuclear issue.

Lib Dem campaigner Bridget Fox has written to Islington's Labour MPs inviting them to support the Liberal Democrat calls

· to end nuclear waste trains through Islington, and

· to say no to new nuclear power stations.

Bridget says,

"The threat from current nuclear waste is bad enough, but a new generation of nuclear power stations will be massively expensive and will extend the blight of nuclear waste for generations to come.

"Nuclear power is the wrong choice for our energy future. I hope Islington's Labour MPs will listen to local people rather than their party leadership and be brave enough to stand up to Tony Blair & Gordon Brown on this issue."

Notes to Editor

1. The Greenpeace report on nuclear waste train movements is available online at

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/contentlookup.cfm?&ucidparam=20060721083707

2. Greenpeace estimate that if a train travelling through stations in inner London is subjected to terrorist attack, 350,000 people may be evacuated. 8,000 could die in the long-term from the effects of radiation.

3. See Bridget's letter to Emily Thornberry below

Emily Thornberry MP

House of Commons

London SW1A 0AA

Dear Ms Thornberry,

Nuclear waste transports & nuclear power

I am writing to you on two issues of great concern to many Islington residents, namely the transport of nuclear waste through Islington and the future of nuclear power.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has recognised the transport of nuclear material as the nuclear operation most vulnerable to terrorist attack or sabotage. Last week an investigative journalist carrying a fake bomb, successfully boarded a nuclear train in the sidings at Cricklewood.

Now Greenpeace has published timetables showing that nuclear waste trains regularly pass through Canonbury, Highbury & Islington and Caledonian Road & Barnsbury on the North London Line. Greenpeace estimate that if a train travelling through these stations were come

under terrorist attack, 350,000 people may be evacuated and 8,000 could die in the long-term from the effects of radiation.

Last month Islington's Liberal Democrat councillors tabled a motion calling on the Government to make an immediate commitment to ending the transportation of radioactive waste through population centres and end such transportations as soon as is practicable.

They also called for renewable energy and energy conservation programmes to be urgently expanded in this country to replace existing nuclear power stations when they come to the end of their operating lives, and to oppose the expansion of the UK nuclear industry.

I support these aims: do you?

The threat from current nuclear waste is bad enough, but a new generation of nuclear power stations will be massively expensive and will extend the blight of nuclear waste for generations to come.

Nuclear power is the wrong choice for our energy future. I hope you and other Labour MPs will listen to local people rather than your party leadership and be brave enough to stand up to Tony Blair & Gordon Brown on this issue.

I look forward to hearing from you

Yours sincerely,

Bridget Fox