The simple answer is nobody knows yet because that work’s not yet been done.
What we do know however from a recently completed national study (Creating Jobs & Skills: A First Look report), is that the number of jobs could for the first 25 years during the construction phase, be on average as high as 4,000 a year.
This would mean roughly a third of these jobs involved in constructing the facility and employed directly on the site, a third in the local supply chain, providing services to those on site and the final third generated in the local economy.
Of course, averages are just that. There will be more jobs supported in some years than in others; fewer jobs at the beginning of the programme, more construction jobs in the middle years and more permanent jobs towards the end of that 25 years. And because this is a national study it can’t say how those jobs will be filled and who will fill them. To say how that could be done in the area, will require lots more work with local people, local businesses and the District and County Council.
However, the national report does make clear that Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) is committed to training people locally to fill jobs at the site. As a result, and because developing and running a GDF will be a very long-term project, it will provide investment in training and developing skills in schools and colleges wherever the GDF is sited. NWS also intends where possible, to buy goods and services from local businesses and to work with them to create local supply chains for the future.
Whether any of this will happen in the Theddlethorpe and Mablethorpe area will depend on local people and local businesses. The aim of the newly established Community Partnership will be to make sure that if a GDF comes to the area, it delivers the kind of investment and local benefits people in the area want. And if, after the work has been done, and the impact explained, and it’s not what the area wants, local people will be able to say so and the development won’t happen.
Still got questions or want to know more? Please come and chat to the team. We are in the Coastal Centre every week on a Tuesday between 9am and 2pm.
Jon Collins – Interim Chair