BNFL bosses have been in the Fylde this week to reassure the public over safety fears about the nearby Springfield site.

And the Lancashire pressure group Spotlight on Springfield (SOS) was also present to ask BNFL if a public-private partnership for the company would compromise safety and risk jobs.

SOS member Jackie Skinner addressed the meeting at St Annes Town Hall for 15 minutes, airing her concerns over the future of the plant if it were to fall into private hands.

"We think that the move to part privatise the site is unfair, both to BNFL and to the long term interests of the local people who work there," she said. "We understand that for business to do well they must improve and expand, which involves money. But we question whether it has to come from private firms. "Tony Blair knows that this question is a political hot potato and that's why he has set the earliest date for it to happen as March 29 2002 -- after the next election."

Alan Beauchamp is a spokesman for BNFL and he said fears about safety at the plant were unfounded.

"The nuclear industry is a very tightly regulated one, and those regulations are not going to be relaxed just because we might become a private-public partnership," he said. "The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) have inspected us on several occasions and even turn up unexpectedly at night to carry out checks.

"A lot of fear about the safety of nuclear sites has been created since the incidents at Sellafield, but Springfield is a totally different type of site. We have a very good safety record as the three reports by the NII show, and we are working in conjunction with them to deal with any recommendations the reports make." The reports also show that we have are dealing very well with the problems that previous reports have highlighted."

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