Campaigners from the Stop Hinkley group have written to the government calling for a halt to building work at Hinkley Point C near Burnham-On-Sea during the lockdown.
Roy Pumfrey, Stop Hinkley spokesperson, has writen to Acting Prime Minister Dominic Raab asking him to ‘safeguard local lives’ and stop work.
He writes: “I urge you to put a stop to the reckless and possibly dangerous Government support for ongoing construction work at Hinkley Point C (HPC) for at least the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
“With thousands of deaths due to C-19 so far, it is a failure of Duty of Care for HMG to put the lives of workers at HPC and the local population at risk.”
“EDF has taken some steps to reduce risk and improve Social Distancing (SD) both at the Park & Rides where workers now gather, on the buses which deliver them to the site and with its site entry system. At the same time, enforcing SD in the queues for the buses and on the buses remains problematic and the basis of work on the site is small teams where SD is all but impossible. The BBC has interviewed bus drivers who are scared to be working under these conditions, as are workers on site.”
“The risk to the local population is due to workers coming from cities where C-19 is at much higher levels than here in Somerset. EDF cannot ‘confine to barracks’ workers in its hostels, themselves a potential breeding ground for C-19, so when workers venture out there is a much greater risk of spreading C-19 than if they were on furlough and staying at home.”
“Please do not underestimate the extent of this problem. Apart from in hospitals, there cannot be many places in the UK like HPC where, after the Easter break, 2,000 people will be gathered for work that could and should be postponed due to C-19.”
“I write to you not simply as a Stop Hinkley representative but as a ‘local’ with the health of local people at heart. What sort of example is being set to local people trying to comply with Government instructions when continuing work at HPC seems a flagrant flouting of C-19 restrictions?”
“I trust that you will take the necessary steps to safeguard our lives and look forward to hearing from you that you intend to close HPC down now.”
Responding to the comments, Nigel Cann, Hinkley Point C Construction Delivery Director, said: “We are continuing to follow Government and Public Health England advice and we work under the oversight of our independent regulator, the Office for Nuclear Regulation. The ONR has said that it is assured that control measures in place at Hinkley Point C are appropriate.”
“I know that there are many in the community that depend on Hinkley Point C for their livelihoods through the excellent Somerset companies that provide our food, accommodation and transport. We will continue to support those companies and their workers throughout the crisis.”
An EDF spokesman adds: “In addition to reducing the number of workers on site, we have introduced many other steps over the last few weeks, like extra cleaning, working from home, banning visitors, temperature checks and bringing in more buses to allow workers to stay apart. We also have first class medical facilities on site to look after workers and give expert advice.”
“The project continues – it is judged as equivalent to a project of National Critical Infrastructure by the Government as it plays a key role in providing the UK with the clean, reliable power needed to fight climate change. We are aware that supporting suppliers now will protect livelihoods and enable the local economy to come back strongly when the crisis is over.”
EDF says the number of workers on site has fallen from less than 2,000 from over 4,000.
