Satellite images from Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem of the SZC site, Jan 2024 compared to Jan 2022. You can clearly see the stripped platform and decimated Goose Hill. All this before a Final Investment Decision. Could this be Suffolk’s HS2?
UPDATE: SZC Co have submitted a planning application DC/23/2772/DRR to clear the main construction site of all vegetation. On a visit around the site a few years ago, the area was teaming with wildlife. Yet more devastation with no financial agreement (FID) in place. Please respond to the application at EAST SUFFOLK COUNCIL Planning if you can.
Works to include:
Phase 2 of tree felling at Goose Hill, starting September 2023.
Use of the processing area established next to Goose Hill woodland for
Phase 1 to support the Phase 2 tree felling.
Upgrade of the tree felling compound through stripping of the topsoil and
backfilling with stone, plus replacement of the current groundhog units with
modular buildings (two storey maximum).
Access/egress via the Lover’s lane temporary site access.
Ongoing clearance of vegetation within the part of Sizewell Marshes SSSI that
will be permanently lost, both in the ‘triangle’ to the north and in the area to the
south-west of the SZC platform.
Ongoing clearance of vegetation across the Main Construction Area (MCA)
north of Sizewell B power station, including the plantation woodland on North
Mound, down to the paling fence along the beach.
Upgrade of the welfare provided in the existing MCA compound with two
modular buildings (two storey maximum), replacing the current groundhog
units.
Ongoing ad-hoc vegetation clearance in the Temporary Construction Area
(TCA).
Excavation and segregation of soils within an area of rhododendron within the
Goose Hill Woodland for biosecurity control.
Upgrade of the welfare provided in the existing ‘marsh harrier’ southern
compound with modular buildings, replacing the current groundhog units
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‘If you go down to the woods today, be sure of a big surprise’
They’ve gone.
Well not quite, but disappearing daily.
Suffolk is not best known for its mountains or hills and Leiston’s Kenton Hills and Goose Hill probably would not be regarded as ‘hills’ but for their name. However, this wooded area, much of it SSSI and all in the AONB, offers an ever-changing scenery throughout the year with a mixture of conifer and broad-leafed trees, flora and fauna and a wide variety of wildlife. Kenton Hills is the home of the rare White Admiral butterfly; they feed on bramble flowers and lay their eggs on honeysuckle, which is the sole food of the caterpillars.
The rare Barbastelle bats live in the nooks and crannies of the oak and ash trees that border the woodlands and they forage for miles around the area. All this rich mosaic of flora and fauna is under threat from EDF’s Sizewell C build.
Of course, none of this is new, TASC, Suffolk Coastal Friends of the Earth, Stop Sizewell C, the RSPB and Suffolk Wildlife Trust, amongst others, all put in robust responses during the DCO examination but unfortunately the government has chosen to ignore the importance of these rare, so called ‘protected’ wildlife sites and the men in orange jackets have arrived with their miles of fencing, chain saws and heavy machinery. Suddenly Sizewell C is all too real, even though the funding is yet to be secured and EDF still requires a site licence from the Office for Nuclear Regulation and various environmental permits from the Environment Agency.
If you go along to the Kenton Hills carpark, off the romantically called ‘Lover’s Lane’, you will find the entrance to Bridleway 19 blocked by a barrier with security guards wandering around with walkie talkies. The once silent woods will be filled with the sound of chain saws and heavy vehicle movements and much of the Goose Hill woodland will cease to exist. The work has already begun and piles of sawn timber can be clearly seen.
The smiling face of EDF, in a previous week’s EADT, proudly announced the start of construction of an access road across the AONB and the felling of Goose Hill woodland to make way for a carpark. It is stated that the works that have taken place already have been careful to avoid nesting birds, as well as avoiding badger setts and protecting bats. How you avoid nesting birds, protect bats or avoid badger sets when you are destroying the very habitat they live in, is a mystery.
Despite an EDF statement on 18th January, claiming that, “[Its] Advance [preparatory] works [for Sizewell C] are reversible in the unlikely event Sizewell C will not proceed to a Final Investment Decision and full construction”, TASC was shocked and disgusted to discover that EDF will renege on that promise when, on 1st March, EDF begins to destroy wet woodland, a legally protected priority ‘Biodiversity Action Plan’ habitat, located in Sizewell Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest. See TASC Press Release
You can still walk to the sea, along miles of fencing with ‘Keep Out’, ‘Private Property’ and ‘Trespassers Will be Prosecuted’ notices, adorning the metal barriers. You can only imagine the effect this is having on the local wildlife, including bats, nesting birds, badgers and the herd of Red Deer that roam the area.
If you get a chance to visit the area and see what’s at stake, please write with you concerns to the local council, East Suffolk Council, and of course the local MP, Therese Coffey, who, as we all know, is Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Rather ironic one could say with such destruction happening on her own patch.
Members of TASC are keeping a watchful eye on these destructive works and are outraged that such work has been sanctioned by East Suffolk Council, Natural England and Defra, all of whom are publicly committed to repairing the UK’s shamefully diminished environment and wildlife diversity. In addition, the work is being carried out long before the final investment decision has been made, as well as before many crucial permits and licences have been issued and a site licence from the ONR has been approved.
SZC co will argue that replacement, compensation habitat will be created, but some of this is over 35 miles away so it will not compensate for what will be a huge loss to this area and in many instances will take decades to mature.
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A short, rather beautiful film of the area, by Suffolk Coastal Friends of the Earth can be found below
(27) Sizewell’s threatened wildlife – YouTube
TASCs walk through the woods with Stop Sizewell C (27) The Walk of Destruction ~ SayNo2SizewellC – YouTube
Suffolk Wildlife Trust (27) Sizewell Marshes SSSI with Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s Charlie McMurray – YouTube
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TASCs Pete Wilkinson article: NUCLEAR POWER: A dangerous throwback, unfit for 21st century needs? can be found in the latest addition of Watermelon in which he clearly spells out the many pitfalls surrounding new nuclear.
Against today’s backdrop of technological innovation in electricity generation through utilising ambient energy sources, nuclear power is starkly exposed as an antiquated, complex and dangerous throwback from the days of nuclear weapons and the cold war…
GREEN LEFT (greenleftblog.blogspot.com)
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