Hinkley Point staff influx could see Somerset residents priced out of housing market
Local people could be priced out of the housing market in one corner of Somerset if a new nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point is approved, council officials fear.
Far from the perception of a gigantic nuclear power station blighting property prices, a new report before Sedgemoor District Council predicts the influx of workers could see prices rocket.
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An aerial view of Hinkley Point, near Bridgwater in Somerset
The report also says French energy giant EDF has not gone far enough to safeguard communities which face massive upheaval during the 10-year building programme, nor leave behind enough legacy of improved infrastructure.
Civic leaders are now calling for special issue-specific hearings when proposals for the Hinkley C reactor go before national planning commissioners later this year.
The authority fears many locals will be priced out of the house buying and rental market when thousands of workers descend on the area, traffic congestion will hit businesses and tourism decline.
“Overall, the attention given to places and settlements is poor,” says the report going before Sedgemoor District Council Community Scrutiny Committee next Monday.
It continues: “This is particularly evident for Bridgwater, which as a strategically important settlement, should have much greater consideration to maintaining its current economic performance, and contributing to its future regeneration plans and supporting a more prosperous town centre.
“By way of example, the council will expect EDF to have assessed and mitigated the cumulative impacts that will be felt in Bridgwater due to increased transport congestion, severance, quality of life and negative perceptions, amongst residents, businesses and investors due to disruption and delay and social issues.
"From an initial review of the Development Consent Order the impacts on community well-being and quality of life have not been assessed in any depth.”
Claire Pearce, the council’s group manager for strategy and business warns: “The proposals set out in the DCO application have wide ranging and significant environmental and community safety implications.
"The individual impacts of the project will have direct effects on the current environment and quality of life of existing communities.”
Councils and members of the public have until 11.59pm on January 23 to register their interest in the proposal with the Infrastructure Planning Commission. It will then appoint at least three and possibly five commissioners.
It is expected that a preliminary meeting will take place at the end of March. At this meeting the developer and all who have registered interest are asked to confirm that the commissioners have correctly identified the issues and a timetable is set. The entire examination could take six months.
Unlike traditional planning enquiries the presumption is that the investigation will be via written representations.
Some hearings at which verbal evidence will be given are also expected and those who register interest can request to give their evidence verbally, though commissioners are not bound to agree the request. The nature of the hearings means that opportunity for cross-examination is limited.
The application runs to thousands of pages. The cost of Sedgemoor’s work on the application over six months from last October to the end of March is expected to be £1,150,000.
EDF Energy continues to pay for the work, which includes the costs of council staff and external consultants. Sedgemoor is expected to register both as a local authority and as an interested land owner. It is also to submit a joint Local Impact Report in collaboration with West Somerset district council and Somerset County Council.
EDF has promised to spend £300 million on mitigation including £20 million towards community funding. The energy giant is reportedly still in negotiations over 230 acres of Quantock Hills land for the development with Lady Elizabeth Gass, Lord Lieutenant of Somerset.
Years before Hinkley C was designated by the Government as one of the eight sites suitable for nuclear use, Lady Gass, had sold wind farm rights on a small parcel of land for up to 12 turbines.
These were snapped up by EDF in 2008 but The Sunday Times reported last month the premium it has to pay her for the change of use on the land she has a freehold interest in is still subject to negotiation.
Comments
by PCAH3
Friday, January 06 2012, 10:14AM
“The UK does not need new nuclear build, not at Hinkley Point, nor anywhere else. If EDF want to invest in electricity supply in Somerset they can build wind farms and solar panels across the existing nuclear site. No major disruption to Bridgwater or other Somerset towns and villages, minimal transport disruption, no increases in mortality from poisonous radioactive gases, no spent fuel on site, no storage of waste for 160 years. Tourism would thrive; more nuclear power would wipe it out completely. The beaches are currently a death trap from decommissioning contamination; locally grown food is risky. Holidaymakers visiting coastal caravan sites are probably at highest risk. We know local people have paid for Hinkley electricity with their lives and the lives of their children for the past 45 years. Second and third generation children are at even greater risk of genetic damage, reduced life expectancy increased cancer incidence and premature mortality. The evidence has been available for decades but still national regulators and local authorities turn a blind eye and continue to give in to pressure and financial persuasion from the French company EDF. There is no benefit to Bridgwater or any other Somerset community from new nuclear build at Hinkley Point. Anyone working on the site would be at risk from all the existing radioactive discharges. If Hinkley C's two French EPR reactors ever became operational, even more people would be at risk from increasing the number of reactors to six, all of which would discharge lethal poisonous gases over an even wider area; just like Japan, six nuclear reactors, none of them safe, all of them likely to cause an even bigger Fukushima disaster. If we are so desperate for large construction projects, we can build the Severn Barrage to provide electricity for twice as long as any nuclear reactor with no health risks to local populations, no waste, no huge taxpayer subsidies, no waste legacy.”