Waste plant ruled out of Dounreay jobs recovery

Published on Wednesday 16 May 2007 00:33

A NUCLEAR waste repository in Caithness would harm efforts to regenerate the economy after the rundown of Dounreay, it was claimed yesterday.

An action plan is being drawn up to help the area offset the loss of about 2,500 jobs when the nuclear plant is due to return to a near-greenfield site by 2033, after a 2.9 billion decommissioning project.

Up to 500 jobs are expected to go over the next five years, when the rundown will level out until about 2017, after which the downward trend will continue.

The board of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), which met in Caithness yesterday, says it is confident of replacing the lost jobs.

However, the agency came out against the possibility of a nuclear waste repository being sited in the area.

Sandy Cumming, HIE's chief executive, said: "A waste repository does not enter our discussions at all. One of the things we want to do in terms of selling Caithness is to have it regarded as an outstanding opportunity to develop a new business.

"As well as an excellent skills base, Caithness has a wonderful natural environment and I'm very excited about recent developments in tourism and the food and drink industry.

"The question is 'will their growth in future be assisted by that particular proposal?' My feeling is that we want to build a sustainable opportunity in Caithness and not in any way detract from the growing opportunities we see at the moment."

Earlier this year, a taskforce was set up to plan the regeneration of the economy after the Dounreay shutdown. HIE, Highland Council and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, together with the Scottish Executive and MP John Thurso, have agreed a plan to tackle the social and economic effects of closure.

An inward investment manager and a Caithness regeneration programme co-ordinator will shortly be appointed to take on the challenge.

Mr Cumming said the area had traditionally had a low number of business start-ups because Dounreay had provided employment for the past 50 years. He said: "The action plan will try to stimulate more business start-ups and grow local businesses wherever we can, but a fundamental task will be to attract new inward investment from the private and public sectors."

Carroll Buxton, the area director of HIE Caithness and Sutherland, said the local economy was already becoming more diverse, with firms involved in the oil and gas, defence, renewable energy and food and drink sectors, while 500 people were employed in call centres.

Willie Roe, HIE's chairman, said he was confident the jobs could be replaced: "The decommissioning of Dounreay and all the facilities here represent a major short-term boost to the economy, but a long-term fundamental change to the economy of Caithness.

"It is the biggest area of change facing the Highlands and Islands economy.

"But in other parts of the UK, having 500 skilled people available would constitute an amazing competitive advantage seeking inward investors.

"I would confidently say we can replace 500 jobs within five years - experience in other places says it's possible. And I have no doubt we can replace 2,500 jobs over the next 25 years. There are attractive features to this part of Scotland."