Letter About The Consultancy Complications Sent To MP Steve Webb

This letter the highlights what we are all feeling about the so called consultations.

It is non democratic and is an indication of what it is like to live with Big Government that wants its way at all costs---For some reason!!- I am sure that Gordon and Andrew Brown may be know why they are progressing in this way.


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Many thanks for your email just before the christmas break from which I note that you are meeting with the IPC to discuss the matter.

Now that Eon's preliminary consultation period is over, I felt I should turn my mind to the next round of consultations we are faced with namely the DECC consultation on their draft Overarching National Policy Statement for Energy (EN-1) and the 5 draft energy NPS' including EN-6 which relates to Nuclear Power Generation.

This is a public consultation which closes on 22nd February and over the last few days I have tried to sit down and go through the documents. Having attempted this, I now find myself knee deep in a further massive pile of papers and have frankly given up! The documents I am faced with run to 8" thick and include:

EN-1 The draft Overarching National Policy Statement - 98 Pages
EN-6 The draft National Policy Statement for Nuclear Power Generation - 306 pages
The Consultation document detailing guidance on how to respond etc - 157 pages
Not to mention various further documents you have to download to understand the details in all of the above

If anyone manages to get through all of this the form they then have to complete to express their views on runs to 40 Pages long! How can this seriously be expected of the public? I can only hope South Glos Council have managed to look at it all and now realise that they are going to have no say whatsoever on the major issues surrounding the proposal at Oldbury.

The DECC consultation is far more crucial than Eon's preliminary consultation as EN-1 and EN-6 set out the basis/framework within which the IPC will have to operate and will be the "primary consideration for the IPC when it makes its decision" it will be their rule book and whatever we say they will have to operate within the parameters of these documents.

Since the documents are beyond most people and as far as I am aware there are no funds or independent help available to guide us through this, the public voice is not going to have any say in this at all. This means that we will not have our say at all on some of the big issues involved in the IPC application at Oldbury (whatever Eon or the IPC tell you) as these will already be predetermined by the NPS' if they go through.

Having looked around the internet for help I have found various sites expressing concerns about different aspects of the documents. In doing this I have found a very good example on the NFLA website which involves the key question of Waste disposal. On the question of nuclear waste the EN-6 advises that the Government is satisfied that effective arrangements will exist to manage and dispose of the waste produced by the new reactors and as a result "the IPC need not consider this question" (para 3.8.20 of EN-6). Consequently the need to store spent fuel at the reactor sites for up to 160 years is not going to be considered by the IPC!! Therefore after the 22nd Feb we will be unable to stop Oldbury being turned in to a nuclear waste dump!! This is completely unacceptable and makes me wonder just how much else the DECC are planning to take out of the remit of the IPC!

Frankly I am rapidly begining to reach the conclusion that neither Eon or the Government want to know how we feel and that these nuclear power stations will proceed whatever we say. If local opinion on whether we are happy to have a nuclear waste dump at Oldbury for 160 years plus is are not going to be an issue for further public debate or for the IPC to consider what chance have we got on having our say on anything else?

I know that the DECC are holding a public meeting on 6th Feb and have registered to attend this meeting, however this is not going to help us get responses back in time for their 22nd Feb deadline. NB Oldbury is the last of the public meetings being run by the DECC so we have even less time than all the other sites.

Furthermore I have also read that the Parliamentary Energy and Climate Change Committee will only consider comments received by the DECC by the 15th January when they then consider the NPS. If this is true is there any point in commenting at all?