Representation by Nicholas Bridges
- Date submitted
- 27 September 2020
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
APPLICATIONS TO PINS TO REGISTER AS AN INTERESTED PARTY I am a chartered architect with 35 years’ experience, specialising in heritage and expert witness consultancy, and who has lived in the area since 1969. I wish to raise the following concerns about Sizewell C. 1. Site Selection • I believe it is the wrong project in the wrong place • Site at unpredictable risk from climate change, sea level rise and flooding • Potential impact on and from coastal processes • Adverse impact on adjacent internationally designated sites of ecological importance and sites of amenity, cultural heritage and landscape value • Eight other uncoordinated energy projects planned for the locality 2. Community, Economic and social impacts • Impacts on local communities - severance, traffic, significant increases in noise, light pollution and disruption. • 6,000 workers will come and live in the area, 2,400 in a Worker campus in a location that I oppose. • Tourism may lose up to £40m a year and 400 jobs. • Pressure on local housing • EDF expects local people to fill 90% of lower-skilled, lower-paid roles • Negative impacts on local businesses • Pressure on health, social and emergency services, impacts on vulnerable people. 3. Transport • Road based transport plan not sustainable; enormous adverse impact on local communities and the visitor economy • Delay in the construction of new road infrastructure means villages would endure 2-3 years of increased traffic • New roads would sever communities, damage rural footpaths and divide farmland. • Rat-running and disruption not adequately considered – existing roads not built for predicted weight and volume • Alternative relief road routes with legacy value not adequately assessed 4. Environment and Landscape • Flooding. • Unclear effect on Minsmere Sluice • Pollution from light, noise and traffic • Dust management for spoil heaps and stockpiles inadequate • Impact of the proposed borrow pits and landfill not fully addressed. • Irreparable harm to Minsmere - a destination of international importance and significance. Impacts on Marsh Harriers threaten integrity of Special Protection Area • Uncertainty re drainage and supply of 3 million litres of potable water for the construction period and beyond. • Abstraction of water compounds risks to the environment and to protected species. • Flood risk due to the loss of flood storage from the development site • Catastrophic impact on AONB and landscape character because of locality, design and scale • Impossible to compensate for landscape and ecological damage • Won’t offset CO2 from construction for at least 6 years. 5. Marine and Coastal processes • Ecological and flood risk impacts on coastal processes from hard coastal defence feature HCDF. No complete design of HCDF available • Rates of erosion and recession episodic and unpredictable • Impacts of Beach Landing Facility on coastal processes • Impacts on marine ecology 6. Application • Wording of Explanatory Memorandum and Planning Statement. • Inadequate Heritage and Visual Impact Assessments I wish to endorse the Relevant Representation submitted by Stop Sizewell C – Suffolk Preservation Society , RSPB, etc. I wish to state that I consider the Sizewell C application to be totally unsuitable for a digital examination process.