Representation by Patricia Isabel Margaret Dowding
- Date submitted
- 28 September 2020
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
East Suffolk/Suffolk Coasts and Heaths are some of the most natural and ecologically important areas in our country. We have invested time and money in building our tourism industry, attracting visitors to RSPB Minsmere, the AONB, our coasts, quiet and beautiful villages and small towns. Sizewell C will negatively impact on this important and sizeable economy. They say the land used for a temporary construction area will be returned to heathland and open countryside. This will take 25 years or more to recover. The flora and fauna will have disappeared in the meantime and Minsmere will be seriously threatened. Our coast is eroding and vulnerable. It is potentially dangerous to build another Nuclear Power station in this location which cannot be guaranteed to be stable. It is even more dangerous to build this station when we cannot verify their claims about the EPR in Taishan, China. But what we do know is that all the other EPR stations in Europe are not up and running despite being years over the build programme and way over budget. Lessons are not being learned by EDF, as proved by the problems already being experienced at Hinkley Point C. EDF claim that building Sizewell C will help the UK economy recover following COVID-19. It will have minimal effect. They talk of thousands of jobs, but they are actually roles, many fulfilled by foreign workers (why not be honest about this) and relatively few open to local people other than the more menial tasks. Whilst apprenticeships are welcome there is no detail provided about this. The Climate Change crisis is now. Sizewell C will not contribute towards it for at least 16 years as by their own admission it will take 6 years to counter the CO2 emissions produced from creating the power station. By the time is does it will be obsolete; new, cheaper technologies will have taken over, notably renewables and storage systems which can provide all the electricity power required in the future. Our local communities between Ipswich and Lowestoft will be heavily impacted by the 9 years or more of the build programme. EDF have not listened to these communities despite the various consultation stages, nor taken advantage of the expertise in our communities who do recognise the negative impacts that building Sizewell C will bring. Those of us who live nearest to the site will have to suffer years of delays from numerous lorries, cars, buses clogging up our roads, making them more dangerous, with high levels of noise and light pollution. And the effects of so many, mostly male workers, living in our communities – anti-social behaviour, engulfment of local tourist accommodation. Proposed link roads are not the right solution. They will cut off many of our country lanes, divide farmland and will not be built in time. There will be water supply problems and potentially flooding. EDF are in a poor financial state and see Sizewell C as their cash cow. Our Government should not be allowing EDF to undertake this project as it leaves all UK tax payers open to pick up any shortfall in funding, let alone the alarm raised by the 20% contribution from Chinese financing.