Representation by Swilland and Witnesham Grouped Parish Council (Swilland and Witnesham Grouped Parish Council)
- Date submitted
- 29 September 2020
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Witnesham and Swilland Grouped Parish Council objects to the proposal to build Sizewell C. Whilst we are not in the immediate vicinity of Sizewell C, so will not be affected by the enormous local disruption that the construction site will cause over at least 12 years, we do anticipate that the project will bring significant negative changes to the quality of life of our residents. It is difficult to see how the claimed benefits in terms of our local economy and employment will be so overwhelming as to make the disruption and damage to the environment worthwhile. The astronomical cost of the scheme, including the risk for future generations of Government Guarantees, should be challenged. There are other approaches to addressing the national energy strategy. It is suggested that the development is essential for the UK’s clean energy needs in the future, this claim alone demonstrates the abject failure of successive Governments’ long term energy strategies, actions and investment over several decades. Our Areas of direct concern Traffic The 325 HGV deliveries to the site a day will be forced to use the A12 and A14, (EDF figures) will result in at least 650 HGV movements along these already heavily used trunk routes (the vehicles will need to return) ie about one a minute over a 10 hour day. This alone will impede our residents’ ability to reach towns such as Woodbridge, Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth as well as the Suffolk Heritage coast and countryside. In addition, the B1078 passes through our community and will become a rat-run for other traffic to and from the site, if not for deliveries, then certainly for construction workers and visitors keen to avoid the HGV choked A12. Transmission Lines For the last 55 years the main 400kv transmission line from Sizewell to Bramford has passed through Witnesham. This double line of huge 75m pylons and wires has dominated the environment and landscape of the southern end of the parish and has had a major detrimental visual impact on our village and in particular where it crosses the attractive Fynn Valley defined as a “Special Landscape Area”. There has never been any compensation nor amelioration for the impact this national infrastructure has had on our community. The development of Sizewell C will mean that the lifespan of this transmission line and its’ detrimental impact to our village will be extended for another 50 years or so. This is not acceptable to our community. If Sizewell C is to be developed then the transmission of its electricity should not be dependent on1960s overhead transmission technology. It should be a requirement of EDF to undertake the work and include the costs for undergrounding the whole length of the transmission line in its total budget for the scheme just as Scottish Power has provided and financed the undergrounding of the 37km, 220kv transmission cables from the off-shore EA ONE wind farm to Bramford, which also passes through our parish. With already two electricity transmission cable corridors through our parish, the Parish Council has repeatedly asked for a strategic and coordinated approach to the overland transmission of electricity from Sizewell and the various off-shore wind farms off the Suffolk Coast and the impact of these on local communities. The Parish Council is concerned that this has not be addressed and as such our parish will continue to be impacted, long term by transmission lines and is at risk of further developments in the future. Housing There is already a shortage of affordable homes in our area, whilst some of the 25,000 strong construction team will be housed on or near the site, or will hopefully already live in the area, many will not. Understandably many will seek accommodation elsewhere either to purchase or rent. This puts enormous pressure on current and planned housing stock. One risk must be that much of the current holiday rental stock in the area is swamped by the construction team, with a resulting devastating effect of the travel and tourism sector; There is a great deal of detail on these points on the STOP Sizewell C website, so we will not repeat them here. Society A sudden influx of 20,000 plus individuals to the area, many of them single young men, will provide challenges (or opportunities) to our local towns - particularly in the evenings! Overall Environment A visit to the area around the identical Hinkley Point development in Somerset with apparently little benefit to Bridgewater, the nearest significant town, is enough to convince one of the enormous impact such a massive project will have on our environment. There is also some doubt over EDF’s ability to actually build this power plant; the company has recently been under some scrutiny by French regulators because it has yet to successfully complete a power plant of this design. It seems there is a finite risk that the project could be abandoned part-way through! Is Sizewell C actually essential? The argument for the development seems to be that nuclear, and water-cooled fission technology is the only answer to the ‘base load’ requirements of the National Power Grid, because current renewables are unreliable due to weather dependency. We beg to differ. It is tragic that if a fraction of the £billions being invested by the Government in this old and inelegant technology, had instead been spent on engineering safer nuclear fusion, where the only waste product is valuable Helium; we might have kept the lead that we once had as a nation in nuclear energy. Instead we plan to use outdated and unproven French technology. The current approach is inelegant because a high proportion of the cost and complexity of construction is in ensuring that inherently unstable reactors remain safe, by removing excess heat, containing any radioactive leakages, then later managing waste, and safe de-commissioning. Furthermore, the economics of renewables are improving all the time. Wind turbine technology is now becoming cheaper than gas or coal and is already far cheaper than Nuclear. Development is needed in energy retention or storage using technologies such as Hydrogen conversion (where the raw inputs are water plus excess renewable energy) and its use to fuel conventional generators or large fuel cells to provide base load during those periods when the weather is unproductive. It is likely that the investment needed in such developments, combined with an ‘over-deployment’ of wind turbines and photovoltaics will be less, and will certainly be less destructive and cleaner than the Sizewell C approach. Such an approach could provide a sustainable boost to our local economy; we would also be developing the skills needed for the future, not training people to work on the solutions of the past.