Steve Webb Stands Up For Shepperdine and Oldbury!!!

Our local MP has already confirmed he does not want  new nuclear power plants at Shepperdine---It is great to see him standing up for us!!

He has our full support.
'We want say over Oldbury nuclear power station plans'

Thursday, January 07, 2010, 07:00Comment on this stor
Northavon MP Steve Webb is about to lobby a new planning body to make sure people have their say over a proposed new nuclear power station in South Gloucestershire.

Mr Webb will meet a representative from the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) next week to discuss proposals for the atomic plant next to the Oldbury nuclear site, near Thornbury.

The IPC was set up last year and will play a major role in the final decision on the proposed plant – one of 10 nuclear sites approved by the Government for development to help the country fill its energy gap.

The commission was created to speed up the planning process for large-scale national building projects, taking away the planning powers of local councils for such schemes.

Final decisions will instead be taken by the IPC, although councils and local residents may make representations as part of the process.

Mr Webb has already registered his opposition in Parliament to the way the new process is less democratic than the current planning system.

He said: "For major decisions such as the site of a new power station, it simply cannot be right that the final decision is taken by a body for which no one is elected and which is not accountable to local people."

He said although the Oldbury and Shepperdine area had been identified as a preferred site, the planning process still had many stages to run.

Power company E.On, which formed Horizon Nuclear Power with RWE npower to promote the project, told the MP it had yet to decide on fundamental issues such as which design of reactor it would use.

That in turn would have implications for the site design and the detailed planning application, which is not expected until late 2011.

"The IPC has been created to slash the time it takes to get planning approval but I am determined local people will not lose out because of a fast-tracked process," added Mr Webb.

"Whether or not people support new nuclear power plants in general, local residents will inevitably have a range of concerns about a huge project of this sort.

"I have already been contacted by local people worried about the visual impact of up to four large cooling towers and up to 5,000 construction workers when building work is at its peak.

"These are the sorts of issues I will be raising with the IPC, to ensure that local concerns are fed in to the process at an early stage.

"I will also be seeking to make sure that local people know how they can best make their views known."