Category Archives: News

Influencers Letter to Alok Sharma 31 March 2020

To: The Rt Hon Alok Sharma MP, Secretary of State for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy

cc The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP, Minister of State, BEIS, Nadhim Zahawi, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, BEIS, The Rt Hon Therese Coffey MP, Peter Aldous MP, Dr Dan Poulter MP, Humphrey Cadoux-Hudson, EDF Energy

31 March 2020

Dear Secretary of State,

We write as individuals deeply concerned about EDF’s proposals to build twin nuclear reactors at Sizewell C. While we welcome EDF’s decision on 26 March to defer submitting its application for development consent “for a few weeks”, we ask you to instruct EDF to delay further until all coronavirus restrictions have been lifted and time and resources are available to focus fully on an application of this scale, because of its significant national and local impacts. The robustness of the DCO process would be severely compromised if there were any constraints on the Planning Inspectorate, Statutory Advisers, Local Authorities, Parish and Town Councils, Groups or individuals.

We additionally wish to emphasise our considerable and rising opposition to EDF’s damaging project. The Sizewell site is totally unsuitable, lying within the Suffolk Coast & Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, hemmed in by protected habitats including RSPB Minsmere, and on an unstable and eroding coastline. The site is much smaller than government guidelines suggest is required for two reactors (two thirds the size of Hinkley Point C) and thanks to flooding caused by climate change, at risk of becoming an island by the time any plants are decommissioned or spent fuel is removed. The RSPB’s view is that Sizewell is not a suitable place to build a new nuclear power station, and that significant damage cannot be avoided or mitigated. The project is at odds with DEFRA’s 25 year plan to increase biodiversity.

HM government’s National Policy statement recognises that Sizewell is significantly more environmentally sensitive than other designated sites, and your statutory advisers – the Environment Agency, Natural England and the Marine Management Organisation – have expressed deep concerns to the Planning Inspectorate about EDF’S preparations for DCO.

Suffolk is poorly equipped to facilitate EDF’s delivery of this major project, lacking transport infrastructure and a significant local workforce with relevant skills. Thousands of workers from outside the region will have to be accommodated in a rural area, which – coupled with traffic congestion – will significantly impact tourism and other businesses in a region prized for its beauty, tranquility and dark, star-filled, skies. 

“Big nuclear” remains very expensive compared to the rapidly falling prices of other energy sources, and the poor construction record of EDF, including at Hinkley Point, means that it will be impossible for EDF to predict accurately how much Sizewell C will cost and how long it will take to build. Furthermore, located in the south of the UK, Sizewell C would not serve your objectives to “level up” the country. With more than 180 studies now published into 100% renewable energy scenarios, we question whether “big nuclear” remains a desirable part of the energy mix. While we welcome EDF’s recent statements about the realistic prospects of extending operations at Sizewell B by a further 20 years, we firmly believe that any investment in Sizewell C will suck valuable financial resources from better technologies, and therefore we cannot support this project.

Signed: 

Dr Andy Wood OBE DL, Chief Executive, Adnams plc

Jon and Lois Hunt, Heveningham Hall

James Hopkins, Executive Chairman, Hopkins Homes

William Kendall DL, Entrepreneur

Bill Turnbull, Broadcaster

Bill Nighy, Actor

Diana Quick, Actor

Maggi Hambling CBE, Painter and Sculptor

Matthew Freud, Head of Freud Communications

Libby Purves OBE, Broadcaster

Paul Greengrass, Film Director

David Morrissey, Actor, Director

The Duke of Grafton, Euston Estate

The Lord Marlesford DL, House of Lords

Caroline Cranbrook OBE, President of the Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival

The Rt Hon Ben Gummer

Sir Kenneth Carlisle, former MP and Lady Carla Carlisle

Sir David Madel, former MP

Geoffrey Probert DL, President Suffolk Preservation Society

William Sieghart CBE, Entrepreneur 

Justin Dowley, Chairman, Melrose Industries plc

Clare Howes DL

Sir Christopher Howes, former CEO of Crown Estates

Caroline Slocock, Director of Civil Exchange,

Major-General (Rtd) John Sutherell CB, CBE 

Guy Heald, Chairman, Hotel Folk

Sir Michael and Lady Hopkins, Hopkins Architects

Cllr David Wood, Chair, Suffolk Coast & Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Partnership

Tim Rowan Robinson DL, Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival

Sir Charles Burrell, Knepp Castle Estate, Rewilding pioneer

Isabella Tree, Author and Travel Writer

Ruth Watson, Restaurateur and Hotelier

Robert Townshend, Townshend Landscape Architects

Richard Ellis, Chairman of Original Cottages

Julia Blackburn, Writer, FRSL

Hugh Brody, Anthropologist

Nick Burfield, former Policy Director, Suffolk Chamber of Commerce

Michael Pritt, Owner, Wentworth Hotel, Aldeburgh

Sir Humphrey Burton CBE, Writer and Broadcaster 

Helen Atkinson Wood, Actor

John Morton, Writer

Jo Deakin, Journalist

Mark Whitby BSc, FICE, FREng, Hon FRIBA, former President, Institute of Civil Engineers

Theresa Tollemache, Director of Volga Linen

Christian Blackshaw, Concert Pianist

Edward Creasy, Corporate Chairman

Molly Dineen, Film Director

Lucy Hughes-Hallett, Writer, FRSL

Dan Franklin, Publisher

Rev. Canon Christine Redgrave 

Amanda Maxwell Dip RBS, TCPD, ARAD, Classical Ballet Dancer 

Anthony Silverstone, Consultant Gynaecologist 

Beverley Silverstone, Freelance Arts Administrator

Jan Etherington, TV Comedy Scriptwriter

Major Philip Hope-Cobbold DL, Glemham Hall

Plus 3 names who signed privately

 

EDF Stay @ Home

“EDF wants to apply very soon for planning permission for Sizewell C nuclear power station. But the government, councils, organisations and you, the Suffolk public, have got something else on their plate. Right now, it’s just plain wrong.”

Tell EDF to Stay at Home! Write and tell them not to submit an application for Sizewell C during coronavirus restrictions – which government advisers say could last most of the year.  EDF will likely make the submission in early May. Tell them not to proceed until all social distancing restrictions are lifted and everyone is free to fully engage. Without this, the planning process would be severely compromised.  Email EDF on info@sizewellc.co.uk and copy your message to the Planning Inspectorate at sizewellc@planninginspectorate.gov.uk and as many of the following as you can manage! Leaders of Suffolk County Council and East Suffolk District Council: Matthew.Hicks@suffolk.gov.uk and Steve.Gallant@eastsuffolk.gov.uk and their Planning Officers Bryn.Griffiths@suffolk.gov.uk and Philip.Ridley@eastsuffolk.gov.uk. Local MPs therese.coffey.mp@parliament.uk, daniel.poulter.mp@parliament.uk and peter.aldous.mp@parliament.uk

If you are a Twitter user, you can also send a tweet to @sizewellc expressing your opposition to EDF submitting its Sizewell C application during coronavirus restrictions. #StopSizewellC

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Financial Times: EDF poised to lodge Sizewell C nuclear plant application

Read online: https://www.ft.com/content/613a9ba7-f720-4224-9c24-cd63a8d26643

EDF poised to lodge Sizewell C nuclear plant application

Suffolk residents cry foul as French group seeks to continue process despite lockdown

Nathalie Thomas

EDF is poised to submit a planning application for a large nuclear power station on England’s east coast despite opponents’ complaints that Britain’s coronavirus lockdown will hamper proper scrutiny of the project.

Suffolk residents have raised concerns about how they can examine and contest the application for the Sizewell C plant after government scientific advisers warned that disruptive social distancing measures would probably be in place all year.

The French utility has been working with Chinese state-owned nuclear company CGN on the plans for Sizewell, which could provide 7 per cent of the UK’s electricity. The two companies are already constructing Hinkley Point C in Somerset, the UK’s first new nuclear plant in three decades, but the project has been hit by cost overruns and delays. EDF warned last year that Hinkley’s completion could cost an extra £2.9bn, taking the total to £22.5bn.

Alison Downes, a Suffolk resident who represents campaign group Stop Sizewell C, said submitting the application during the Covid-19 pandemic would “escalate anxiety at a time when people have got a huge amount of others things to be anxious about”.

She added that people would not be able to hold meetings to discuss the company’s plans while social distancing measures were in place.

EDF, which is expected to submit its application in early May, said it had planned to do so at the end of March but delayed because of the pandemic.

Humphrey Cadoux-Hudson, managing director for nuclear development at EDF Energy, the French utility’s UK division, wrote to Suffolk parish councillors this month saying the company had received assurances from the UK’s Planning Inspectorate that it had the resources to process the application during lockdown.

He said EDF would discuss with the inspectorate the possibility of delaying the “examination phase” of the process — during which hearings are held with stakeholders — “until they are happy that no parties will be disadvantaged”.

EDF is keen to press ahead with the planning processes. It argues that Sizewell C could be built for 20 per cent less than Hinkley by replicating what it has done in Somerset and transferring experienced staff from one project to another. It is hoping to take a final investment decision on Sizewell C at the end of 2021 or in early 2022.

However, there are also big question marks over the funding for Sizewell C. EDF has been pushing for a Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model, a type of financing used for other infrastructure projects such as electricity networks and the Thames Tideway “super sewer” in London.

But the proposal has attracted criticism from opponents of nuclear power, who point out such a financing scheme would mean consumers are paying upfront via their energy bills for new plants before they are even built. The government launched a consultation on the RAB model last year but has yet to report back.