STOP PRESS – 9th July 2020
Maldon District Council Planning Committee’s comprehensive rejection today of the Chinese state-backed nuclear developer’s (CGN) application for permission to undertake ground investigations came like a bolt from the blue. For so long a firm supporter of a new nuclear power station at Bradwell, Maldon has done a complete volte-face.
Prof. Andy Blowers, Chair of the Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group (BANNG) commented: ‘From the moment CGN revealed its plans just before lockdown it became clear the Bradwell B project would be dead in the water. The massive scale of the project which would totally overwhelm the Blackwater area and the Dengie peninula has proved too much to stomach, even for those who were seduced by the promise of thousands of jobs. The price, in terms of loss of environment and wellbeing, was simply too high.’
But the project is also being threatened by the political fallout in relations with China. Chinese ambitions to build a new nuclear power station at Bradwell do not come without serious risks to national security and the threat of Chinese economic dominance over the UK’s sensitive infrastructure.
‘This has been a very bad week for Bradwell B. With mounting concerns about Chinese designs on Bradwell, the project has fallen in its attempt to gain a planning permission to investigate the site. The fallacy of entertaining investment by a potentially hostile power in a site that is unviable and unsustainable in the era of climate change has been revealed.’
‘It is surely only a matter of time before either the UK pulls the plug or the Chinese walk away from a project that is going nowhere. After all these years BANNG simply says, “good riddance”.’
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Contact:
Varrie Blowers – BANNG Press Officer – +44 7932 644482