Rochdale Council has voted to support The British Nuclear Test Veterans Association in their campaign for national recognition

Rochdale Council has voted to support The British Nuclear Test Veterans Association in their campaign for national recognition.

About the BNTVA:
Premier charity representing and supporting health and wellbeing needs of all people who have worked with, or alongside, atomic material, to the benefit of the Nation.
They seek to maintain the heritage of our Atomic Veterans and pass lessons they have learned to future generations.

British Nuclear Tests
Between 1952 and 1967, in the largest Tri-Service operation since the D-Day landings, over 20,000 service personnel participated in British Nuclear Weapons Tests.
The development of these super weapons brought our place at the superpower table. The cost in human terms has never been fully calculated nor appreciated.
The first test took place on the Montebello Islands, then by two tests at Emu Field and four tests at Maralinga and then tests on Christmas Island and the Malden Islands.

Campaigning for Recognition
The British Nuclear Test Veterans Association believe the time is now for the Nation to act and recognise the debt owed to its citizens for their service in unique and difficult conditions.

The following motion was passed by the Council:

1. That this Council notes that its commitment to the Armed Forces Community Covenant ensures the needs of those residents in the Borough of Rochdale who serve or who have served, the country are recognised and supported at a local level
2. Further notes that many other residents have, through a range of professions, served the country in equally significant measure, such as in national security and defence – including those who participated in the testing of Britain’s Nuclear weapons in the 1950s and 1960s
3. Welcomes that, following a Ministry of Defence commissioned Health Needs Analysis in 2011 of British nuclear test veterans, the NHS have introduced a number of practical measures to support them
4. Believes that other parts of the public and voluntary sector should seek to introduce similar measures to support nuclear test veterans – and that the council should lead this at a local level by extending the provisions of the Armed Forces Community Covenant to those veterans who live in the Borough of Rochdale
5. Urges the Government to support the campaign of the British Nuclear Tests Veterans Association by:
• Officially recognising the unique service of these veterans and acknowledge the Nations continuing debt to them; and
• Supporting the intention to establish a benevolent fund of £25million from the Government to provide assistance for those veterans and their descendants in need.
6. Agrees to ask our Members of Parliament to back this campaign and join the Council in urging the Government to support the requests outline in (5) above.