Campaigners trigger Sizewell C court challenge

Campaigners against EDF’s planned new nuclear plant at Sizewell have instigated a legal bid to overturn Kwasi Kwarteng’s decision to award the project planning permission last month.

The secretary of state for business and energy granted consent to the 3.2GW scheme on 20 July, overturning the Planning Inspectorate’s recommendation that it should not receive the go ahead.

Together Against Sizewell C (TASC), an umbrella group that brings together opponents of the project, has sent Kwarteng a pre-action protocol (PAP) letter.

This signals the start of a judicial review on the grounds that the project was given development consent unlawfully.

The examining authority appointed by the Planning Inspectorate partly accepted TASC’s arguments that the nuclear power station should not be built at Sizewell because of uncertainties surrounding water supply for cooling its twin reactors at the site.

The campaigners also raised concerns that the coastline will not be resilient for the entire lifetime of the project, which is due to be built next to the existing Sizewell B nuclear plant.

TASC, represented by law firm Leigh Day, said in its PAP letter the decision was unlawful because there was a failure to fully assess the implications of the project by ignoring the issue of whether a permanent water supply could be secured.

Pete Wilkinson, chair of TASC, said: “The case against Sizewell C is overwhelming, as has been carefully documented throughout the inquiry stage and was found by the planning inspector to have merit. Even to consider building a £20bn plus nuclear power plant without first securing a water supply is a measure of the fixation this government has for nuclear power and its panic in making progress towards an energy policy which is as unachievable as it is inappropriate for the 21st century challenges we face.”

Leigh Day solicitor Rowan Smith said TASC is “understandably shocked” that Kwarteng has gone against the Planning Inspectorate’s “considered and reasoned view” by granting development consent in a “potentially legally flawed manner”.

EDF was contacted for a comment.

Last month, the government cleared Sizewell C to become the first nuclear project to be financed under the regulated asset base (RAB) model, which has already been used to fund other large infrastructure projects such as the Thames Tideway super sewer.