Last updated at 11:58, Friday, 26 February 2010

FOR people like Barrow AFC chairman and businessman Brian Keen, an energy-generating barrage that includes a fast road link over the Duddon would be the best thing that could happen to the whole area.

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“I can’t think of a more fantastic idea for this area, it could not be better,” said Mr Keen, who owns engineering factories in both Barrow and Millom

“It would open us up to the west coast and make it much quicker, and it would be marvellous for health and safety too.

“The road we have now from Barrow to Millom is horrendous and the crashes that have happened on it...it is probably the worst road in Britain quite frankly.

“A barrage could not be better for Barrow and Millom.

“I will back it all the way and support it in any way, shape or form that I can,”

Mr Keen owns Barrow engineering firm St Andrew Engineering and Millom’s Scurrah Nassau, a fabrication and engineering firm.

He says Scurrah Nassau has some of the best facilities in the whole of south west Cumbria. For many operations he has to move himself, his men and equipment, and fabricated items between Millom and Barrow on the existing roads.

If a road bridge is created as a spin off from a profitable tidal electricity generation scheme over the Duddon, it would mean more jobs for industry in Millom in general and at his firm.

Mr Keen said: “We have got the best fabrication factory in Furness.

“It would mean jobs and we could increase our outgoings from Millom.”

He added: “If we want to be part of nuclear developments, we have to be able to get there as quickly and as safely as we can.”

Not everyone is so positive about the benefits.

Councillor Wilson Huck, 77, has been chairman of Millom Without Parish Council for “nigh on 30 years”.

He said: “The council has had no chance to look at this yet, but my own opinion is that the problem with all of these things is it’s a question of balance.

“There are advantages here and disadvantages there with most of these things and that is basically the view I have got from the council in the past.”

Cllr Huck said with all big projects, there tends to be unintended consequences.

“Nuclear energy is the big example,” he said.

“You get the advantages and you get the huge problems with the disposal of waste and the possibility of accidents and with problems distributing the electricity.

“It is impossible to tell what effect a barrage would have on Millom.

“On the whole I think it is a good thing but I don’t think you can say that unequivocally.”

Councillor Robin Pitt, of Millom, and a Labour member of Copeland Borough Council, says a Duddon barrage with a road would be “massive” for Millom.

Like many, he was taken by surprise by the announcement that a study is under way.

He said: “We can only express delight at any possibility of having a barrage and a road.

“A lot of us have been calling for that for a long time.

“Obviously this is a feasibility study and no more than that, without any great commitment.”

He says with the government keen to create new sources of energy, both nuclear and renewable, reasonable transport infrastructure would be needed.

Cllr Pitt said: “This seems to be moving in that direction.

“I would imagine this is indicative of the government saying lets get started. The government is saying we have a potential crisis in terms of energy requirements for this country.

“This (study) gives you various means of energy that all contribute including nuclear power and renewable energy.

“A barrage would clearly be one of these.

“Obviously a feasibility study will be looking at the flows over the Duddon.

“A lot of people have said in the past there is not enough flow there to make a barrage possible or practical.

“It would be lovely to actually to have a road connecting this part of Copeland with the rest of the county, without us having to travel all the way we have to travel on torturous roads to get to the motorway.

“It would be nice to think we were getting a decent road coming in.

“It would make a huge difference to Millom and Haverigg, absolutely massive.

“A bridge will improve road transportation dramatically and if it produces electricity at the same time, that is a win-win situation for the whole country, not just for Millom.”

In Barrow business support agency Furness Enterprise is enthusiastic about the new study and keen to submit its views to the people running it.

Fe industrial development manager Stuart Klosinski said: “It would increase the tourism potential of that area of the west coast and would reinforce already strong links between Furness and the coast south of Workington.

“It would enhance the opportunities for the workless people of Furness and West Cumbria to find new opportunities should new nuclear power stations be built in Cumbria.

“It would also help link together two areas that are currently linked by a bad road.”

The agency says better links could be a major boost to the county’s Energy Coast dream to become an important supplier of energy nationally, drawing from a portfolio of energy types, from nuclear to offshore gas and wind and possibly barrages.

Mr Klosinski said: “It would tap into untapped energy sources.”

But Fe is also cautious.

Mr Klosinski said: “There was a Morecambe Bay barrage study done in the 1960s.

“People were excited when that was announced but we are still no nearer now.”

First published at 13:11, Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk