Representation by Mrs Muriel MacRae
- Date submitted
- 28 September 2020
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I wish to make representation that this project is entirely unsuitable for the area. It is a massive industrial project and this is a rural backwater with no industrial history and none of the infrastructure (road, rail, accommodation, amenities) required to support the massive influx of people and vehicles a project of this scale would involve. Extensive road and rail improvements will be required before they can even start yet EDF intend to carry on and build the new roads and roundabouts concurrently generating even more traffic and workers flooding the area. EDF have failed to take into account the other simultaneous large energy projects proposed for this area. Each of which will generate large volumes of HGV and worker traffic and cause an influx of workers also looking for accommodation. It is important that all these projects be considered together and not in isolation to see the true impact on the area.... and its subsequent inability to cope. Then there’s the irreversible damage to biodiversity in the area, 12 years of noise, light and air pollution and 30m high spoil heaps are going to badly affect Suffolk heritage coast, RSPB minsmere and the AONB plus areas of SSSI will be destroyed. . I thought we were better than that these days? Any new nuclear build should be carried out on a brownfield site not trample over not only greenfield land but supposedly protected greenfield land. And all for what? An unproven nuclear power plant which will be completed too late to hit the carbon reduction targets IF it’s completed on time –the only working EPR UK reactor in the world finished years behind schedule and the three other ongoing builds are all overrunning – Flamanville by 12 years so far. EDF claim they have learnt lessons and can build Sizewell faster and more efficiently – I doubt it. The latest HPC setback has been “unexpected ground conditions”. Surely that is one of the first things they should have assessed fully – these are enormous holes they have to excavate and yet they are caught out after some years and the project is extended for another 2 years. This does not inspire confidence that they do their homework properly. If, despite the huge advances in renewable energy, the government decides we must build more nuclear plants then EDF should look at Hartlepool (also suggested in EN6) for the build of 2 new nuclear reactors. Hartlepool has the roads, rail, ports and infrastructure to cope with such a major project, an industrial heritage, pre-existing nuclear plants and far greater unemployment problems than Suffolk. In addition choosing Hartlepool would go a long way towards the levelling up agenda. This is common sense not nimbyism. Finally I entirely endorse stopsizewellc’s and tasizewell’s relevant representations.