Hinkley Occupied Again — directions to camp

Pro­test­ers have for the sec­ond time in a week occu­pied the devel­op­ment site at Hink­ley Point nuclear pow­er sta­tion in Som­er­set.

In the ear­ly hours of this morn­ing anti-nuclear activists took pos­ses­sion of an aban­doned farm on the site which is pro­tect­ed under Inter­na­tion­al Envi­ron­men­tal law. The site con­tains a Site of Spe­cial Sci­en­tif­ic inter­est (SSSI) and a pro­tect­ed wet­land (R.A.M.S.A.R site) but it is due to be cleared by pow­er com­pa­ny EDF in the com­ing months. Pro­test­ers are angry that per­mis­sion has been giv­en for this work to begin before the com­pa­ny have won per­mis­sion to build their con­tro­ver­sial new nuclear plant.

Som­er­set born Theo Simon said “We want to reclaim this land and make sure that the wildlife that inhab­its it and for­ages here is pro­tect­ed. Giv­ing per­mis­sion to clear the land before Plan­ning Per­mis­sion has even been grant­ed clear­ly gives the mes­sage to EDF that per­mis­sion is a done deal. I, and many oth­ers like me, want prop­er pub­lic con­sul­ta­tion and debate before we com­mit to a tech­nol­o­gy whose tox­ic lega­cy will remain for gen­er­a­tions.”

Local media report­ed this week that EDF will begin site clear­ance in the com­ing weeks, although EDF claimed the oppo­site when pro­test­ers occu­pied the trees on Tues­day.
The first phase of the prepa­ra­tion works will include removal of hedgerows and all trees, before strip­ping all top­soil and lev­el­ling the land­scape, all this despite the fact that plan­ning per­mis­sion has not been grant­ed for a new nuclear pow­er sta­tion at the site.

Nik­ki Clark of SWAN said “Bat ecol­o­gists have explained to us that 86% of Bat crime is caused by the destruc­tion of roosts car­ried out by devel­op­ers. We have been told that the so-called ‘mit­i­ga­tion’, which involves build­ing alter­na­tive roosts, that has been pro­posed by EDF has nev­er been sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly test­ed to prove that it actu­al­ly works.”

Ques­tions have been raised about the Gov­ern­men­t’s process of devel­op­ing ener­gy pol­i­cy.
In the cor­rup­tion of gov­er­nance report last week it was revealed that the ‘Nuclear Renais­sance’ was insti­gat­ed against the advice of sci­en­tists, and is indica­tive of wider cor­rup­tion with­in the Depart­ment of Ener­gy and Cli­mate Change.

The new min­is­ter brought into replace Chris Huhne, who stood down last week to face crim­i­nal charges, is Lib Dem — Ed Dav­ey. Despite hav­ing pro­duced the par­ty’s anti-nuclear pol­i­cy in 2006, he has now made a com­plete U‑turn and is sup­port­ing the coali­tion in pro­mot­ing new nuclear build in the UK.

Shana Deal, one of the occu­piers in Lang­bor­ough Farm, said today: “If EDF’s activ­i­ties con­tin­ue, this nature reserve will be lost for­ev­er. Not even EDF are will­ing to guar­an­tee that a new nuclear pow­er sta­tion will be eco­nom­i­cal­ly viable, and I for one do not want to see this beau­ti­ful land turned into a Tox­ic Waste dump.”

The farm premis­es is acces­si­ble by pub­lic foot­paths and vis­i­tors are being wel­comed by the pro­test­ers.

For back­ground and fur­ther infor­ma­tion phone: 07530 947554