Nuclear plans under threat - from Cellophane?

Over at Angus Walker's blog at Bircham Dyson Bell there is an interesting piece on the news that a Cellophane manufacturing firm in Somerset [called Innovia] has put a judicial review shaped spanner in the works for EDF's plans to build Britain's first new reactor in decades, at Hinkley Point near Bridgewater.

Basically EDF wants to get hold of some of the firm's land to use for accommodating 1,000 workers on the 5-year build. The Infrastructure Planning Commission is considering EDF's proposals and the cellophane guys are not happy.

They want to deny EDF access to their land, claiming that EDF's planning application for the complex should be treated separately to its application to build the reactor itself.

Looking at the reported details of the case, Karen Jones, partner at Blandy & Blandy, says "The central issue here appears to be whether EDF has properly included this land within the order for development consent. The strict conditions the decision maker must be satisfied are met for inclusion of compulsory purchase powers include the condition that land is required for the development or required to facilitate or is incidental to that development. This means that reasonable alternatives to compulsory purchase should have been considered and the interference proposed must be for a legitimate purpose and proportionate. It seems that Innovia contend the "village campus" does not fall within those conditions and should not properly be subject to compulsory purchase via the development consent but should more properly be considered through the standard planning process. That process is one Innovia could ultimately block by withholding their land from EDF."

Photo by Bistrosavage via Flickr.