A leading Cumbrian businesswoman has joined Balfour Beatty to help spearhead links between Sellafield's massive BEP project programme and the local community. 

Dianne Richardson, formerly Business Development Officer at Cumbria Growth Hub, has now started work as socio-economic manager on the ambitious project to construct a box encapsulation plant which will receive, segregate and encapsulate hazardous waste already stored at Sellafield. 

The contract for the project is worth between £240 million and £336 million and was awarded to a three-way bid from construction giants Balfour Beatty, AMEC and Jacobs. 

All three firms are committed to engaging Cumbrian businesses in the supply chain and hiring locally-based staff and apprentices. 

Mrs Richardson, who is based in Balfour Beatty’s west Cumbria office, will take the lead in fostering links between the five-year BEP project and local businesses and community groups. 

She said: “I loved the job I was doing at Cumbria Growth Hub but it was a fixed term job coming to an end and it was time to move on. 

“I was thinking, ‘What is it that I really want to do?’ and I decided that socio-economics was exactly the place I wanted to be because there’s immense job satisfaction to be had in it. 

“There is a big push from government now that where public money is spent, part of the value taken into account must include social value as well as financial value. In other words, how is it going to assist the local community?

“The best description I’ve heard for socio-economics is actually from a west Cumbrian who said, ‘It’s the stuff we do because it’s the right thing to do.’ 

“I thought that summed it up perfectly! 

The phrase came from Edward Blackmore from Livingstone Surface Treatments and he’s absolutely right.” 

Mrs Richardson will be based in West Cumbria but will also be travelling to Sellafield’s Warrington and Risley sites in Cheshire. 

“This is a great place to work and it’s a great team who have made me feel very welcome,” she said. 

“There is a lot going on. We have got a lot of great individuals doing great work with local schools and local community projects and part of the job is the get the word out about that work. 

“Obviously we can’t do everything but I hope that people will look at what we do and, at the end, say that they’re sorry the project is finished. 

“At the moment I’m working on communications channels between people on the project who want to contribute to community and the community itself to match up what people can offer and what the community needs. 

"It’s a really exciting job.”