Representation by Louise Gooch (East Suffolk Council Cllr)
- Date submitted
- 29 September 2020
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I write as an East Suffolk Council Cllr. I am opposed to Sizewell C for the following reasons: The site itself is a nationally and internationally recognized SSI and AONB; as such, the project is opposed by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust and Friends of the Earth. Ancient woods such as Coronation Wood would be felled, and such precious resources would be lost forever. Over 100 local businesses have recently written to the government to voice concerns on the impact this project might have on local tourism and farming. The building of the project will not be carbon neutral. Assuming that the plant is completed in 2034, it will take a further six years for the project to ‘pay-off’ the carbon debts of construction; and the actual operation of the plant in terms of the ongoing needs in campus servicing and transportation will detract from the energy gains. The A12 is not a trunk road even though it is the main highway from first and second towns in Suffolk of Ipswich and Lowestoft. The insertion of five new roundabouts would cause greater traffic congestion and environmental pollution. It is not just the land and air that would suffer degradation, but also the water. The sea water intake would create ‘marine churn’ relying as it does on sucking in tonnes of fish every day; in addition, the fresh water demand of Sizewell C would be 3 million litres per day from the water reserves of an area that is the driest region in the country. The site is prone to coastal erosion and was described by ESC in 2019 as one of the most “unstable coasts” in Europe. This erosion and the risk of flooding could maroon the proposed site within a century leaving an island of radioactive nuclear waste. The current government and those preceding have tried for seventy years to attract a community to ‘house’ a nuclear waste repository for the backlog at a cost of £12 billion. This is still uncertain and supporting an industry that will simply add to this waste with a radioactive life of 100,000 years is reckless in the extreme. I have concerns about the funding of EDF and its ties to Chinese state authorities, and its financial wherewithal to make good on the necessary decommissioning over the next century. Nuclear energy is not green or clean. The forthcoming book by Mark Z. Jacobson, Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Stanford, dismisses in chapter three any such claims. As a Cllr, I am concerned also about the lack of democratic engagement that has been permitted in the ‘public consultation’ process. Covid-19 has restricted public access to meetings and documents, and when EDF was requested by ESC, representing its parish councils, to delay Section 56 to prolong the consultation process, the response was a flat ‘no’. In short, this is the wrong technology, in the wrong place, and in the hands of the wrong company.