Protestors occupy Hinkley nuclear site, accuse EDF of pre-empting permission

Activists occupying new nuclear site accuse EDF of ‘ignoring democracy’ John Vidal, environment editor guardian.co.uk, Friday 17 February 2012 The energy company has started work on the £10bn Hinkley Point C power station without permission to build Environmental activists have occupied the site of what is planned to be Britain’s first new nuclear power station since 1995, and on Friday accused EDF of “ignoring democracy” and starting work on the £10bn project without permission to build the station…..

EDF today admitted they did not have permission to start building the power station but said the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) had accepted their application for a Development consent order (DCO). The IPC will take around a year to decide on the DCO and, if EDF’s bid is successful, would allow the company to build on the site. In addition, a spokesman said the company had received permission from West somerset district council to begin “preparatory works”….

But the protesters said the preparatory works were so large they constituted the effective start of the power plant construction and rendered the consultation period, when arguments for and against the power station could be heard, meaningless. “The government has steam-rollered this through. Either EDF is behaving in a grossly insensitive way by clearing 500 hectares of land, or they know that they will get permission to build the nuclear station. If it is a done deal then the consultation is bogus. The democratic process has been dispensed with completely”, said Theo Simon, one of the eight protesters now in the farmhouse.

The group, who call themselves the Barnstormers, have been issued iodine pills in the case of a nuclear accident by the local council. “We are here for the long haul. We have a lot of support from local people who have brought us food and wood. We are hoping other people will come to the site,” said one.

The IPC’s examination and decision making is likely to take nearly a year, by which time the site will have been cleared of all vegetation.

“This is like someone who has not got planning permission digging the foundations of a new house. The extent of the activity, the clearance of most vegetation, hedges and trees, the excavation of more than 4 million cubic metres of soil and rocks, the re-routing of underground streams, the creation of roads and roundabouts, major changes to the landscape … mean it is effectively the beginning of construction of the proposed Hinkley C nuclear power station,” said the Stop Hinkley C spokesman Crispin Aubery…. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/feb/17/activists-occupy-nuclear-site-edf