This week the Chronicle revealed how regional development agency, One NorthEast, was offering £50,000 for someone to draw up a business case for a new nuclear power site in the area. The plans caused outrage among local green campaigners, and North East MPs, who questioned why and how the tender was drawn up before Government policy on nuclear power has been decided. Now the agency has decided to withdraw the tender altogether. It was a threat that brought back memories of the David and Goliath battle that started back in 1978, when the Central Electricity Generating Board announced Druridge Bay, in Northumberland, was a potential site for a nuclear power plant. In response protestors launched the Druridge Bay Campaign and sent in a 30,000-signature protest petition to Downing Street. In March, 1983, a group of people gathered behind the bay and made a 25 feet diameter circle with stones. Soon a cairn of stones was built, with each one representing an individual's opposition to the nuclear proposal. Berwick Liberal Democrat MP, Alan Beith, placed the first rock. As Bridget Gubbins, a key figure in the Druridge Bay Campaign, said: "A stone pile to beat a nuclear one." The CEGB bought enough land at the bay for two power stations and in 1984 test drilling began. Around 300 campaigners, led by Ellington Colliery Brass Band, turned up to oppose the rigs. In 1989 the Shadow Energy spokesman visited the area and said it would be a great pity to spoil the bay as a beauty spot and an amenity for people. His name was Tony Blair. There was a respite when the Government said that the nuclear industry would not be privatised and no power stations would be built until after a review in 1994. But soon there was another battle to fight. Northern Aggregates, part of the Ready Mixed Concrete group, was extracting 40,000 tonnes of sand from the Bay. The shoreline was disappearing by the lorry load. Another campaign to fight this was launched. Protesters sat in front of the mechanical sand digger. And in 1993, at RMC's annual meeting in a top London hotel, campaigners dressed as King Canute and his court arrived. On the strength of buying one £5 share, four of the group had to be admitted to the meeting where they told how the bay's sand levels were falling and the dunes were being eroded. In 1996 RMC stopped extraction and gave up their permissions. The final push was to persuade the nuclear industry to sell their land at the bay, which eventually it did. At last, the bay was safe. Speaking this week Ms Gubbins said: "The Government is in a difficult position, with fossil fuel prices going up and gas shortages, but if they think they're going to get away with bringing nuclear power to Druridge Bay, they have another thing coming." | 
Tyne Bridge Publishing
