Minister must come clean on Tony's toxic treasure - German

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 26th Oct 2006

Mike German has challenged Assembly Ministers to confirm whether they will be following England's lead in offering councils toxic bribes to accept nuclear waste.

Environment Minister David Miliband yesterday offered English Councils cash incentives to have nuclear waste buried in their areas, and told the House of Commons that his colleagues in the devolved administrations would be doing the same.

Mike German, Assembly leader of the Welsh Lib Dems and spokesperson on local government, said: "The Labour Assembly Government talks itself up as saying no to nuclear, yet Miliband's comments suggest that Carwyn Jones will be offering 'radioactive readies' to communities here in Wales. I will be writing to Carwyn Jones to know whether he will be hawking Tony Blair's toxic treasure to cash strapped Welsh councils. I also want re-assurance that if there are no volunteers, then nuclear waste will not be dumped on communities against their wishes.

"The unresolved problem of dealing with nuclear waste is one of the key reasons why Welsh Liberal Democrats have been campaigning against any new nuclear power stations in Wales. Quite reasonably, no-one wants toxic waste in their back yard and I doubt the government's proposed sweeteners will make this pill any easier to swallow."

Notes:

David Milliband's comments came in a statement to the House of Commons yesterday.