Anti-nuclear campaigners from Lancaster join four-day walk of peace

They gathered on the High Level Bridge overlooking the Devonshire Dock and BAE Systems, where replacement submarines for the Trident nuclear weapons system are being built.

As the group set off from the bridge, Martin Tiller of Christian CND said: "We look away from the ugly military-industrial complex towards the beautiful hills and shorelines of Cumbria. We choose hope and go forward into the world in peace."

On behalf of local CND groups, Philip Gilligan said: "It is time to stop the madness of a defence system based on mutually assured destruction. Barrow needs to maintain employment opportunities, but with sufficient political will to engage fully with defence diversification, jobs would be available in other industrial production and a greater number of skilled jobs could be created in the engineering sector.

"In fact, fewer than 12,000 jobs are directly dependent on our country replacing the Trident nuclear weapons system and, given the estimated cost of £205billion, these will be among the costliest jobs ever created.

"People’s livelihoods matter, but the billions of pounds being spent on the Trident programme could be spent much more efficiently and much more usefully in Barrow and elsewhere.

"Instead of squandering public money on strategically useless weapons of mass destruction, these billions could be spent on projects such as building science parks, working on essential nuclear decommissioning, becoming a world leader in international inspection and verification and on investing in the shift to renewable energy.”