The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Sutton Bridge Parish Council wants a judicial review over planning consent for a second power station.
Last month the government said EDF Energy could build the plant, known as Sutton Bridge B. The development is said to lead to around 1,500 new jobs during construction and around 50 permanent positions once operational.
But the parish council – backed by 98 per cent of residents who took part in a poll – is against another power station in the village. A working party of two councillors and four residents has been set up to seek legal opinion on the way forward.
A raft of objections includes:
- building it on a flood plain is against government guidelines
- EDF Energy has not adhered to conditions attached to the existing station – one being the use of much more efficient combined heat and power
The council agreed last week to inform the Secretary of State for Energy, South Holland District Council and John Hayes MP that it intends to seek a judicial review.
Coun Phil Scarlett said: “The Secretary of State takes the view there is nothing further that needs probing and therefore it would not be appropriate to cause a public inquiry to be held into the application.
“It is clearly up to us to assemble a dossier of things that require probing.”
Time is critical as an appeal must be lodged by October 28.
Sutton Bridge parish councillor Phil Scarlett
Coun Scarlett added: “We should not be hoodwinked by the standard justification that EDF B will bring 1,500 jobs to the area during construction, with around 50 permanent positions once operational.
“It can easily be shown that any jobs will be of no benefit to the local area since outside contractors will be engaged. We understand that the existing power station runs from another plant elsewhere in the country so there aren’t many people employed in Sutton Bridge.
“The general line in the decision is that they’ve taken objectors/comments into account. But they haven’t set out their reasons for rejecting them.”
The multi-million pound plant would create up to 1800MW of electrical generation capacity to be fed into the National Grid.
Meanwhile, work to upgrade the existing power plant is planned for 2016.
The upgrade is intended to increase the energy output of the 800MW natural gas-fired, combined-cycle facility by 3.4 per cent, as well as lowering its start-up times and operating costs.
