BBC Local Live: Cumbria (2025)

The union representing mainly white-collar workers at Sellafield has described the collapse of the current plan to build a nuclear power station at Moorside as "devastating".

The union's senior deputy general secretary Sue Ferns said it was also "very worrying" in terms of the broader future of new nuclear investment in the UK.

She told the BBC that the government should look at taking a direct financial stake in new projects.

BBC News Travel

Temporary traffic lights are causing particular delays on the A66 at Braithwaite, near Keswick, and in Ambleside, southbound on the A591.

New research, external suggests that North and West Cumbria are among the worst places in England for discrimination against benefits claimants who want to rent a home.

The housing charity Shelter and the National Housing Foundation, have examined the last 100 rental adverts on the website Zoopla for every postcode area.

Across the UK, roughly 10% of lettings advertisements say either "no DSS" or "no housing benefit".

But 59% of the adverts posted for north Cumbria included either of these phrases, while the figure was 38% for west Cumbria, the worst and second highest figures for this in the study.

The charities say that may violate the 2010 Equality Act, as more women and people with disabilities are likely to claim housing benefit

Moorside's importance starts with the lack of future for west Cumbria's other big atomic power source, nuclear reprocessing, external, which is winding down rapidly.

The company set up to develop the plant, NuGen, external, was started by a partnership of Spanish, French and UK companies, in 2009, but Toshiba moved in, seeing the project as a market for its Westinghouse-designed generating plant in 2013.

The three new AP1000 reactors were to generate 7% of the UK's energy needs and from the first digger driver clearing the ground, to the last decommissioning expert cleaning up the site decades into the future, employ an estimated 21,000 people.

It would cost, depending on the source, £10bn to £15bn, much of which would be spent with local contractors, so it would soak up both the skilled people and the indirect benefits to suppliers and other local firms that would be lost with Sellafield's decline.

The last sign of the optimism of the early days still shines out of the NuGen website.

Both west Cumbria's MPs, the Conservative Trudy Harrison and Labour's Sue Hayman, have cast eyes towards China as a possible way to revive the Moorside nuclear plant project.

Ms Harrison is just back from China and Sue Hayman is still there, both having meetings with the China General Nuclear Power Group.

BBC Weather

There will be a few showers this afternoon but also plenty of dry weather and there should be some bright or sunny intervals at times too.

It will stay breezy, with temperatures from 8C to 11C (46F to 52F).

You can find the latest BBC weather forecast for where you are here.

Two of the main unions at the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant have attacked government policy over the collapse of the Moorside project next door.

Toshiba plans to wind up its UK nuclear business after failing to find a buyer, dealing a potentially fatal blow to plans for the Moorside power station.

The nuclear power plant was seen as one possible source of new work for the workers who will be shed over the next few years as reprocessing is wound down.

The union Unite said it was not too late to revive the project, but it would need the active involvement of government "including the commitment of public money".

And the GMB said the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority should be given the jobs of developing new nuclear power as well, with a small recator built on the Sellafield site.

The independent Mayor of Copeland, Mike Starkie, has called for government action to support the Moorside project, while the Workington Labour MP Sue Hayman said the lack of national backing showed ministers did not care about west Cumbria.

Mr Starkie said he was still confident the project could go ahead, but it needed to be underwritten by the government to provide confidence for investors.

Workington MP Ms Hayman, does not share Mr Starkie's optimism that the Moorside project could be rescued.

She accused the government of betraying the area, after promising support for Moorside during the Copeland by-election.

A scan of comments on the social network this morning picked up some contrasting views on the apparent collapse of the Moorside nuclear power project - to find a way of reviving the scheme, to press ahead to some new generation of nuclear power, or to swing towards renewable energy.

The latest list of structures considered by the government agency, Historic England, to be at risk includes a new entry from Cumbria.

The deteriorating condition of the former Grade II listed London Road Goods Station in Carlisle means it is now on the Heritage at Risk, external register.

But the remains of Coniston's copper mines have been removed from register. This follows a two year project, funded by the Lottery, to preserve the site.

BBC News Travel

An overturned lorry has blocked the A65 at Crooklands, affecting traffic between Crooklands and Kendal.

Copeland's Conservative MP Trudy Harrison says she remains confident that a nuclear power station will still be built at Moorside, and has pointed up the Chinese industry as one possibility.

She is preparing to address teenagers at a skills fair this afternoon and says she will tell them there is still a future in that energy sector.

Temperatures at 3,000ft (900m): About 5C.

Winds: Fresh or strong southerly, gusting gale force up to 60mph at times on the tops.

Cloud: Broken at times through the morning with a base of 1,600ft to 2,000ft (500m to 600m). Cloud cover more extensive later in the day with the cloud base falling to 1,300ft (400m) at times

Visibility: Mostly moderate, but poor at times on summits

BBC Weather

Today will be rather cloudy with the chance of showers and some bright or sunny intervals at times too.

It will be a breezy day with highest temperatures from 8C to 11C (46F to 52F).

You can find the latest BBC weather forecast for where you are here.

It was the rising costs of nuclear power in the UK that turned Moorside into a commercial dead weight, according to experts.

Toshiba has announced it is winding up its nuclear arm NuGen, which was behind the development of the Moorside project in Cumbria.

The price of new reactors and the expenses of paying for the disposal of nuclear waste for decades into the future now all fall on the investors developing the power plant, and Dr Jonathan Marshall, an energy analyst from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, external says they make getting energy out of the atom less and less profitable.

And he says this leaves gas-powered generation and renewables increasingly with the advantage, with government policy treating all forms of power equally and letting them compete.

Martin Lewes
Reporter

Cumbria's business leaders are looking to a future with plans for a nuclear power station at Moorside sent right back to square one and Sellafield's nuclear reprocessing industry set for a certain decline, external.

The only firm left behind the proposals for a £15bn power station next door to Sellafield, the troubled technology giant Toshiba, announced overnight that it was closing down its involvement in the project by winding up NuGen, the company set up to develop it.

The land next to Sellafield is still earmarked for a new nuclear power station and owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, but otherwise the project is dead.

Rob Johnston, chief executive of the Cumbria Chamber of Commerce, says that the only potential new investor, the state-owned south Korean firm, Kepco went looking elsewhere in the world for better prospects when it realised the UK government saw the nuclear industry as a mainly commercial venture.

Japanese company plans to wind up NuGen, its UK nuclear division, after failing to find a buyer.

Martin Lewes
Reporter

We'll be here through what looks likely to be an important day for Cumbria.

If there's news you think we should know or you want to share a photo you've taken in the county, let us know by sending an email, on Facebook, external, or on Twitter, external.

Hartside Cafe was a popular stop thanks to its views but was destroyed by fire in March.

We've now stepped back to let the software post any major breaking news or travel reports overnight. Here is a reminder of some of today's developments:

We'll be back from 08:00 tomorrow to do it all again.

If there's news you think we should know or you want to share a photo you've taken in the county, let us know by sending an email, on Facebook, external, or on Twitter, external.

Have a very good evening.