NEW figures reveal that convoys used to transport nuclear weapons and radioactive waste have suffered 40 safety lapses in the five years since 2014.

Up to eight times a year these convoys of heavy trucks containing weapon materials and nuclear warheads travel, via Cumbria, between the Aldermaston and Burghfield atomic weapon plants in Berkshire to the Royal Navy base at Coulport, on Loch Long, where the UK’s nuclear weapons are stored. They frequently travel up the M6 and along the A66.

The 40 incidents have been uncovered through a Freedom of Information request by the Scottish National Party, which warns that Ministry of Defence complacency while transporting nuclear bombs could be catastrophic.

It is, indeed, shocking that Cumbria’s roads are regularly being used by military convoys with nuclear warheads on board. Any safety lapse is a cause for concern, but we should all be very alarmed that such incidents are so frequent.

We need to take nuclear weapons off our roads and scrap them altogether.

Philip Gilligan

Cumbria and Lancashire Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

Sandside