CAMPAIGNERS fighting plans to create the world’s largest high-level nuclear storage facility under western Cumbria staged a demonstration at Bowness Bay this morning (Saturday).

Around 20 anti-radiation protesters urged visitors and locals to sign letters objecting to the proposal to build an underground repository which would extend beneath part of the Lake District National Park.

A decision on whether to support the nuclear store will be made by Cumbria County Council on January 30. If approved, it could begin to take in waste by 2026.

The Ditch The Dump Demo, organised by Radiation Free Lakeland, was staged to highlight safety concerns over the storage plan, which include the claim that the county’s geology is not suitable.

One of the protest organisers Marianne Birkby, of Radiation Free Lakeland, said Cumbria had been misrepresented by the nuclear industry as a ‘willing community’.

She said: “Communities are actually very angry. Parish and town councils have all opposed the nuclear waste plans. If Cumbria County Council and Allerdale and Copeland district councils don’t oppose them they will effectively be ignoring local democracy.”

Mrs Birkby added that campaigners would be prepared to ‘lie down in front of the tunnelling machines’ to continue the fight if the authorities allowed the repository to go ahead.