Re: Proposed 'Ammunitioning Facility' jetty at Bull Point (MR 434578), I get the impression from your recent report that the Mayor of Saltash has now joined the Ministry of Defence 'brainwashing' team. I hope you will allow me to comment on certain aspects which, I think, need further examination.

The Project Manager, Cdr. Antcliffe R.N., has been quoted as saying that the proposed jetty will improve safety for local residents.

The 'local residents' he has in mind are, I think, mainly those at Camels Head living within 500 metres of the point where 're-fuelling' of nuclear-powered submarines now takes place, along with their ammunitioning.

I have seen, quoted elsewhere, statements from the Project Manager according to which there will be a 500 metre safety zone, wherein there will be no inhabited buildings.

So, an obvious improvement here, bearing in mind the low population of the Wearde area of Saltash as compared with Camels Head! But the big issue is that the Ministry of Defence accepts that an accident involving a nuclear powered submarine could happen and that there must be in operation a plan to protect the public if things do, in fact, go wrong. The plan applicable to Devonport covers an area within a radius of 2,000 metres of the Naval Base, so presumably, a similar plan will come into being covering a similar area from Bull Point. Such an area would include Saltash Town Centre, housing estates and schools.

Saltash Mayor, Mona Tomaszewska seeks to draw a parallel between living opposite Ernesettle Ammunition Depot (conventional arms and explosives) and living across the water from Bull Point.

From my own observations as a Tamar Bridge user the ammunitioning operations from RNAD Ernesettle (i.e. the seaborne ones) start off with these nasty items being loaded into barges and transferred to warship or supply ship either in the stream or, if alongside, in a safer environment than Bull Point. I doubt if a nuclear powered submarine has ever gone under the Tamar Bridge. Comparing the two procedures and thus inviting Saltash residents to draw erroneous conclusions seems, to me, to be irresponsible.

Nowhere have I seen any mention by the Ministry of Defence that nuclear warheads are to be handled at the proposed Bull Point Jetty. Presumably the nuclear reactor 'refuelling' (or whatever may be the correct term) will still take place in the Naval Base but these are nuclear armed submarines and their ammunitioning will presumably need to take place at Devonport and why is a 'Remote' Ammunitioning Facility Jetty now being proposed if it is not expressly for dealing with nuclear, as well as conventional, weaponry.

Mayor Tomaszewska implies that extra jobs will be created. Any construction work of this nature is bound to create extra jobs but apart from this aspect just how do these extra jobs come about?

GODFREY WYCISK

Callington