A former nuclear power station employee has accused EDF Energy of being “disingenuous” over plans to use off-site land to relocate Sizewell B buildings in the way of the C plant.
Terry Hodgson, a former district and county councillor for Leiston, worked at Sizewell A for 32 years until he retired in 2007 and now represents the Suffolk Association of Local Councils on the Sizewell Stakeholder Group (SSG).
He told the latest SSG meeting that assurances had originally been given that certain areas near the nuclear site would not be used for development.
“Now we are told they are to be used. This is disingenuous to the local community,” he said.
Under plans being considered, part of a woodland planted to commemorate the coronation of George V will be bulldozed to make way for the relocation of some of the Sizewell B power station buildings.
The existing buildings, including a visitors’ centre and training centre, are in the way of plans for a £16billion Sizewell C nuclear power station.
Proposals to clear the woodland – planted by the Ogilvie family in 1911 and partly felled to make way for Sizewell A in the late 1950s – were revealed earlier this year in a “scoping report” sent by EDF Energy to Suffolk Coastal District Council.
The proposals, still at a pre-planning application stage, would also see nearby Pill Box Field, which is only a few hundred yards from cottages at Sizewell, become a 570-space car park.
Marianne Fellowes, SSG chair, said it would surely be better to use land within the Sizewell A boundary, where some buildings are soon to be demolished, to relocate the B station facilities.
Paul Morton, EDF’s Sizewell B station director, said the relocation of the buildings was linked to the Sizewell C station project.
“We are looking for an indication from the C project. If it is delayed then we will go back and look at whether we need this land,” he said.
EDF has promised to consult the local community on the proposals and carry out technical and environmental assessments before submitting a planning application.
According to the scoping report, relocation of the Sizewell B station buildings would take four and a half years to complete and, at the peak of construction, there would be 70 lorry deliveries a day and a workforce of 175.
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