Sizewell Stage 2 - the beginning of the end?

A comprehensive 17-page response has been sent by sage to EDFE on the Stage 2 report. With numbered paragraphs for easy reference, it looks at
 
       (1) the consultation process, and issues covered and left out.  EDFE's report simply does not make the grade. 
 
       2) the so-called transport strategy which shows effectively a withdrawal from any serious responsibility for a vast increase in traffic levels on Suffolk's already badly maintained and inadequate road system.
 
       (3) On nature, it assesses the Hinkley mitigations - hilarious and deeply sad too, and the sheer scale of the Suffolk Coastal nature assets and the dependent tourist industry.
 
We've picked out some issues on nature mitigation from the Hinkley experience, looked at Bridgwater versus Leiston on social fabric issues, the question about how much protection the Sizewell SSSI has and why not at EU level, and the heavy hint that Woodbridge is back in the frame for park-and-ride and maybe a lorry park.
 
Our response was influenced by lively and well attended meetings at Theberton and Yoxford. Thanks to involvement with TASC - Together Against Sizewell C - we attended their meeting with the two councils' JLAG (Joint Local Authority Action Group) about their joint response.
 
We conclude that what would need to be done to protect Suffolk nature/tourism/communities etc either can't be done (they can't mitigate Minsmere) or can't be afforded and won't therefore be done.

We also say the planning criteria should not just be  "suitability" but "sustainability" - nuclear lifespan/alternatives etc and "necessity" - only seven sites officially needed out of eight potentials, and the nuclear "renaissance" already outdated.
 
We float the business rates issue (other EDF sites get big appeal reductions, something JLAG has been told). We wrote our response prior to the joint council report, known as the McGregor Report, and seemed to get most of it righ,t e.g. Section 106 funding headaches.
 
The sage group response been sent to councillors Guy McGregor and Geoff Holdcroft, the Suffolk County and Suffolk Coastal Joint Local Authority Group representatives on JLAG with their planning officers, and the national infrastructure planning inspectorate (NIPS) at Bristol.

• See our full detailed response to the EDF Sizewell C Stage 2 consultation document here.