MP Steve Webb Gets Stuck In to Help with Undemocratic Process

RESIDENTS baffled by the planning process that will decide if a second nuclear power station will be built at Oldbury are being offered help from their local MP.

Northavon MP Steve Webb met with representatives from the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) last week, which is the new body that will decide on any future nuclear developments.
Mr Webb said: "After my discussions with the Infrastructure Planning Commission it has become clear to me that the process of consultation over a new nuclear power plant risks baffling us all. "There are pre-application consultations, exhibitions and debates, preliminary public meetings and full public hearings, all over a period of more than two years. "We have to give our views to the nuclear power company, to the council, to the Government and to the Infrastructure Planning Commission. It is vital that there is real clarity so that people who feel strongly about these issues know when and how they can have their say."

At the moment people living near the Oldbury site are being encouraged to respond to the Department for Energy and Climate Change's consultation on the National Policy Statement for Energy Infrastructure.
It was this document which listed Oldbury as a preferred site and it is this consultation that will guide the IPC when it makes its decisions.
Separate to the government's consultation, E.ON, the energy company that wants to build a new station at Oldbury, will be carrying out its own consultation with residents. This will all take place before an application is submitted to the IPC, which is not expected to be until towards the end of 2011.


Mr Webb said: "One of the key conclusions of my meeting with the planners is that people who feel strongly about this issue need to be willing express their views to lots of different organisations and over a period of years. "This is a long and cumbersome process, but I will do my best to help local people feed in their views about issues big and small."


Local residents have until February 22 to respond the government’s consultation on the National Policy Statement for Energy Infrastructure.

For more information visit www.nuclear-nps-events.info/home.aspx