Bringing nuclear warheads up north? Not if I have my way, warns Salmond

ALEX Salmond has told officials to explore every possible avenue in an attempt to prevent the UK government from transporting nuclear warheads across Scotland, it emerged last night.

The First Minister has also called a "Trident summit" for next month to increase the pressure on Westminster over the movement of nuclear warheads to the Faslane submarine base.

The SNP went into this Scottish election with a strongly anti-nuclear policy, but defence matters are reserved to Westminster and there is nothing, on the surface, that the Scottish Government can do about the UK's pro-nuclear defence policy.

But Mr Salmond believes his government could use environmental regulations or other devolved powers to stop or delay the transportation of nuclear material around Scotland.

Green MSP Robin Harper wrote to Mr Salmond last month asking the First Minister to commission an inquiry into the transfer of nuclear warheads around Scotland.

Mr Salmond has just replied, telling Mr Harper he shared his opposition to nuclear weapons and reassuring the Green MSP that he wanted to go even further than an inquiry.

The First Minister told Mr Harper: "I want to get to a position where we can persuade the UK government to change its stance both on the replacement programme and on the general principle of maintaining a nuclear deterrent."

Mr Salmond explained in an interview with a Sunday newspaper yesterday that he had asked officials to find out if there was any scope for using EU environmental regulations to prevent the transfer of nuclear warheads.

A spokeswoman for the First Minister said yesterday that Mr Salmond was determined to find ways of preventing Trident missiles from being transported around Scotland.

"That's why we are looking at environmental regulations and that's why we are having the summit," she said.

Mr Salmond's "Trident summit" will bring together anti-nuclear campaigners, environmentalists and groups from around Faslane to one conference to thrash out the issues surrounding Trident and what can be done about it.

Convoys of warheads for Trident missiles travel by road between the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Berkshire and the Royal Naval Armaments Depot at Coulport on Loch Long, north-west of Glasgow. The missiles themselves are maintained at Coulport.

Travel by road in heavily armoured trucks is judged to be the safer than travel by rail, air or sea. The Ministry of Defence insists that the highest standards of safety are followed on the convoys.

Exact numbers are secret, but nuclear campaigners estimate that from two to six return journeys take place each year, with each convoy carrying dozens of warheads.

A Scotland Office source said the suggestion that the Scottish Government could use EU environmental directives to stop the convoys was "nonsense on stilts".

The source said: "This is just undergraduate gesture politics of the most embarrassing kind. Alex Salmond says he wants to lead a government, but he's behaving like he's running a loony-left 1980s council.

"He knows he can't really do anything about Trident, and this is just another sign of his willingness to talk about anything other than his core policy of independence."

UNIONS TO LAUNCH 'AMBUSH' ON PRIME MINISTER

ONE of Britain's biggest trade unions is funding a "nuclear ambush" on Gordon Brown over his plan to replace the Trident arsenal.

Unison, which has 1.3 million members and gives millions of pounds to the Labour Party, is has diverted some of its campaigning funds to pay for a new anti-Trident study to be published as the Prime Minister arrives at the Trades Union Congress in Brighton today.

The study, by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, argues that the estimated 76 billion cost of replacing Trident would benefit the British economy much more if it were spent elsewhere.

Nuclear weapons could prove a flashpoint at the TUC gathering this week. Unison and the T&G, two of the largest trade unions, opposed replacing the Clyde-based weapons system. But Labour MPs, many of whom receive financial sponsorship from the two unions, voted to replace Trident in a Commons vote in March.

Mr Brown is personally sponsored by the T&G. He angered the union's leadership by leading government attempts to talk round Labour opponents of Trident.

The CND report, written by Steven Schofield of the BASIC arms reduction think-tank, argues that instead of funding trident, ministers should invest in renewable energy sources instead.

"With such a multi-billion pound investment, the government could satisfy 50 per cent of its electricity generation needs in offshore wind and wave power, providing 25,000 to 30,000 jobs," the report argues.