CONCERNED and angry workers packed Winfrith Village Hall to ask why their hard work in decommissioning a former nuclear site had resulted in redundancy.

Some 300 jobs are expected to be lost as a result of funding cuts at the Winfrith site - and staff of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) said this was the first time they could speak to those responsible.

A public meeting by the Winfrith Site Stakeholder group saw 100 people turn out to hear why the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is cutting the budget and causing skilled staff redundancies and mothballing' their work when it could be finished in one go.

Head of the Winfrith site for UKAEA, Andy Staples, said their decommissioning work would have been completed by 2017 with an expected budget of up to £50 million but now the plan had been put back 20 years.

He said now Winfrith and the Harwell nuclear site in Oxfordshire had been flat-funded - meaning the money has not gone up to match expenses - to £60 million between them.

The meeting heard that as part of an NDA review funding was being prioritised at the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria, which was considered more hazardous.

Mr Staples said it would mean a significant reduction of both UKAEA staff and contractors at Winfrith by 300-350 people - out of a previous workforce of 400-450.

He added: "It will mean keeping Winfrith in a state of safe care and maintenance rather than active decommissioning.

"There will be a series of changes over the next six months."

NDA site program manager Malcolm Barents said they needed to concentrate on those sites with the highest hazard and had to manage within the current resources.

He added: "It's a bit premature to say there will be a 20-year delay in decommissioning - we don't know when funding might change in the future."

Prospect trade union representative Austin Kinnane and other UKAEA staff arrived at the meeting with protest banners about the loss of up to 70 per cent of the workforce.

He said: "This has been the first opportunity to directly ask the NDA questions because they haven't come to us personally.

"This is important to the local community as well, because the decommissioning will be stopped. At the moment we're getting rid of all the nuclear facilities and one objective is to hand all the land back to the community.

"Now the redundant nuclear radioactive facilities will remain at Winfrith far longer than they need to."

He added: "You do a good job of decommissioning the site and get to a certain point and your reward is being made redundant.

"Are the NDA ever going to finish any site? The answer is no." Wool parish councillor Alex Ward received a round of applause when he said: "With a 20-year delay, even if staff are willing to hold on until decommissioning starts again many will be at retirement age.

"The problem will be training up new staff with the same sort of expertise.

"I can't see how you're readily going to replace these people when decommissioning becomes an option again.

"All the expertise and training seems to be lost."

Conservative parliamentary candidate for South Dorset Richard Drax said: "It is totally illogical to make all these highly-qualified people redundant if they've got to come back in 20 years' time.

"They've done so well they've worked themselves out of a job, that's the irony. "Normally those who do well get rewarded - in this business they've got sacked."