The Prime Minister is being urged to back a new plan to dispose of the 13 clapped-out nuclear subs cluttering Devonport dockyard – and create jobs for the city in the process. City Labour MP Luke Pollard has written to Theresa May, and copied in all other party leaders, asking her to support his idea to pay for the disposal – and recycling – of the retired subs by raiding the coffers of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) rather than the cash-strapped Ministry of Defence. Mr Pollard, Sutton and Devonport MP, is part of a cross-party task force – including Tory Trudy Harrison and the SNP’s Douglas Chapman – seeking a solution to a problem which has bedeviled the dockyards at Devonport and Rosyth, in Scotland, for years. There are 13 redundant nuke boats in Devonport and seven tied up in Rosyth. There is no danger to the public from storing them at the yards – but they are taking up vital space. And with three Trafalgar-class subs due to come out of service by the early 2020s, and four Vanguard-class boats being pensioned off in the early 2030s, Mr Pollard said the clock is ticking and space needs to be freed up.
Plymouth Herald 17th June 2018 read more »