4 months ago
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The Chair of the Nuclear Free Local Authorities have written to Nuclear Minister Andrew Grinch MP urging to honour his promise to revisit the communities of East Suffolk to meet and talk with elected representatives and local people about their concerns over this massive project.
Minister Bowie visited the Sizewell C site in May and met with local campaigners, including activists from Stop Sizewell C. At that time, he promised to return to meet again with local people before parliament rose for the summer recess, but despite repeated attempts by Stop Sizewell C to make arrangements for a second leg none was forthcoming. Frustrated by the lack of engagement over their legitimate concerns, representatives from 37 local parish and town councils wrote to the Minister in October. Finally a visit was arranged for 13 December, but it was then mysteriously cancelled.
The NFLA Chair Cllr Lawrence O’Neill has now written to the Minister asking him to restore his credibility by finally honour his promise to return in the early new year.
Commenting, Cllr O’Neill said: “I have urged Minister Bowie not to become known as Suffolk’s Christmas Grinch, and promise to go back in January 2024. Sizewell C would be a truly massive engineering project and its impact on the local environment and on local communities will be profound. Local people and their Councillors have genuine and legitimate concerns that they wish to relay to the Minister and his officials, and they wish to do so on-site and in-person so their gravity may be more apparent.”
Ends//: For more information contact NFLA Secretary Richard Outram by email to richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk
Notes for Editors
The letter to the Minister reads:
The Rt. Hon. Andrew Bowie MP
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
(Minister for Nuclear and Networks),
Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
Monday 18 December 2023
Dear Minister,
Commendable though it was that you visited Sizewell in May, I must now write to you as Chair of the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities to express the collective disappointment of our members that you have failed to fulfil your promise to return to engage meaningfully with the communities, people, and elected members of East Suffolk.
At the time of your spring meeting with representatives, you publicly pledged to return before the Parliamentary summer recess (i.e. by July). Since the summer, Stop Sizewell C has sought repeatedly to arrange with your office a follow-up visit and in October you received a letter from the elected representatives of thirty-seven local parish and town councils seeking further urgent engagement.
When and if it were it to begin, Sizewell C would be a truly massive engineering project undertaken over many years and its impact on the local environment and on local communities will be profound. Consequently, local people and their representatives have genuine and legitimate concerns that they wish to relay to you and your officials, and they wish to do so on-site and in-person so their gravity may be more apparent.
After months of waiting, arrangements were made for your return visit to take place on 13 December. Imagine then, the frustration of local people to hear that the visit was cancelled with little notice, leaving them perplexed, and angry at this poor treatment. Government stock amongst local people over Sizewell C is consequently at a low ebb.
Minister, please don’t allow yourself to become tarnished as Suffolk’s distant Christmas Grinch!
We urge you to recognise the urgent and critical need to keep your promise to come back and talk to local people very early in the New Year, specifically before triggering the Sizewell DCO which I understand is planned in early 2024.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and consider the contents. Your comments to this letter would be gratefully received. Please could I ask you to send them in the first instance by email to Richard Outram, NFLA Secretary, at richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk
Yours sincerely,
Councillor Lawrence O’Neill,
Chair, UK/Ireland NFLA Steering Committee
