Save Suffolk’s Wildlife from EDF’s Sizewell C | Crowdfunder
In August last year we uploaded a podcast, Sizewell C and the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB, which discussed French energy giant EDF Energy’s proposal to build a new power station at Sizewell in Suffolk, adjoining two existing power stations Sizewell A and Sizewell B. The site lies in the heart of the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and right next to the RSPB’s flagship reserve at Minsmere.
At the time EDF Energy said that Sizewell C has “the potential to generate the reliable low carbon energy the country needs for decades“. Opponents (and for the podcast we interviewed ecologist Tom Langton, Rachel Fulcher, coordinator of the Suffolk Coastal Group of Friends of the Earth, former local councillor Joan Girling, and Adam Rowlands, Senior Site Manager at RSPB Minsmere) said that the development would “lay waste” to vast swathes of the countryside – much of which is legally protected.
Now Rachel Fulcher of Suffolk Coastal FoE has let us know about a Crowdfunder set up to pay for expert opinion to challenge EDF’s arguments that the development will do no harm:
We need scientific evidence to prove that, during the 12 years of construction, the damage to protected species would be extensive and that the small amount of mitigation offered by EDF Energy is grossly inadequate. We urgently need funds to pay scientists to write expert reports for us and to speak for us in the infrastructure planning examination. This will determine whether or not Sizewell C should go ahead.
Most particularly we need to be able to pay an expert eco-hydrologist, who would assess the changes to water levels in the surrounding marshes due to the construction works, which in turn would change the chemistry of the water. This would mean that many of the rare and sensitive species, such as the dragonflies, moths, plants and birds, would no longer be able to thrive here.
We have to convince the Infrastructure Planning Inspectorate that this is totally the wrong place for another nuclear power station. The damage to our highly sensitive landscapes would be so appalling that it should not go ahead. Scientific expertise is vital to enable us to counteract EDF’s arguments successfully – but it’s very expensive!
The government inspectors will begin to examine EDF Energy’s application shortly, so we need to brief our scientists now as a matter of real urgency.
Can you help us to save Suffolk’s wildlife from this abominable development? Any contributions, of whatever size, will be hugely appreciated. Thank you!
(Screengrab 31 May 2020)