By Jenny Barwise

Published at 11:36, Friday, 08 March 2013

Council leaders have branded anti-Sellafield protestors “scaremongers” who will drive away tourists on the eve of an anti-nuclear march.

Elaine Woodburn

Copeland council leader Elaine Woodburn and Conservative group leader David Moore have labelled claims made by anti-nuke groups Radiation Free Lakeland and Three Weeks to Save the Lakes as “bizarre” and “damaging”.

Anti-nuclear protestors will march through Copeland tomorrow to highlight alleged radioactive contamination of west Cumbrian beaches and to call on the Government to do more to clean up Sellafield.

They will put up signs on Seascale beach before walking four miles to the Sellafield gates.

Miss Woodburn said: “The damage that can be done to brand Cumbria by well meaning but poorly informed protests such as this, far, far out-strips any potential damage done by having a nuclear site in the area. They are attacking the very tourist industry that they claim to care for so much.”

Miss Woodburn has also slammed a petition set up by the group calling for the Nuclear Decomissioning Agency to clean up Sellafield as quickly as possible and minimise any discharges. She said that this was “precisely what they are doing”.

A spokesman for the NDA said the authority was engaged in a £600m construction programme to build modern storage facilities to house all legacy waste at Sellafield.

Mr Moore said:“I have no problem with anybody raising a concern but such direct scaremongering from a group who aren’t even based in Copeland is beyond the pale.”

Protesters will meet at Seascale car park and set off along the Cumbria Coastal Way at 10.30am.

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk