The Chief Executive of Stroud District Council, Kathy O’Leary, has written to EDF regarding its ongoing engagement with people in the district around a potential scheme to create a new salt marsh at Arlingham..
The energy company has permission to build Hinkley Point C, a new nuclear power plant on the Bristol Channel coastline in Somerset. EDF is considering an application to Government to remove from the existing Development Consent Order the Acoustic Fish Deterrent from the pipe which brings water from the Bristol Channel into the plant. The purpose of such a device is to minimise the number of fish that are pulled into the pipe and killed.
Instead of installing an Acoustic Fish Deterrent, the company is now looking into the possibility of creating areas of ecological compensation elsewhere in the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel region, including a potential new salt marsh at Arlingham, within Stroud district. Representatives from the company have hosted public meetings in the area recently to discuss the idea.
In the letter, Ms O’Leary said: “It is very disappointing that EDF has not directly engaged in any meaningful way with the District Council on such a significant issue in advance of approaching communities and landowners. In addition, the District Council has not seen any primary technical information about the saltmarsh proposal nor been briefed on the process by which EDF are seeking to take forward their proposals, which means we cannot engage meaningfully.”
She has asked the company for reassurance that it will share their evidence and data with the District Council, so it can meet its commitment to serve and support the communities affected by the potential scheme.
If the company were to submit a planning application for the salt marsh, the District Council will very likely be part of the statutory decision-making process. As such, the letter is not a comment on the scheme itself, rather a request for better conversations and community engagement.
Read the letter in full here: 20241210-edf-letter.pdf
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