Eurolink Update after Parish Council meeting on 14th November
The Council will be posting both here and on its own webpages on a regular basis updates on the unfolding situation. The Council encourages all residents, visitors and friends of Walberswick to be informed and involved.
The WPC considered a report on Eurolink at its meeting yesterday (14th November) that was well attended by all Councillors, many parishioners both in person and via Zoom and our Suffolk County Council Representative, Richard Smith, and our ESC Representative, David Beavan.
The Council resolved to unequivocally object to the “short-listing” of Walberswick beach as a potential landing site for Eurolink on the basis of the inappropriateness of the site. This relates to the area being a year-round recreational beach, an AONB and SSSI, and its inaccessibility by road for construction vehicles. Economically, it could be expected to have a devastating impact on local businesses that would already be suffering from the impact on the tourism sector that the construction of Sizewell C will have in Suffolk coastal. Presumably, the Walberswick Common Lands Charity would suffer from the taking of its land and the loss of its main source of revenue from the car parks during construction.
Building on this Resolution, the Council also approved the following Action Plan to push the Eurolink project to drop further consideration of Walberswick beach:
- The Council will write to our elected representatives at the District, County and National levels to express our objections and ask for their support. The Council thanked both Cllr Smith and Cllr Beavan last night for their statements expressing their objection to the Eurolink proposal and their commitment to work with Walberswick and other impacted communities to oppose the current selection of inappropriate sites. WPC will also write to our MP (and Environment Minister) Therese Coffey to ask for her involvement and to stand up for her constituents in her national role by opposing these proposals for landing sites and overwhelming the Suffolk coast’s AONB with massive-scale energy infrastructure.
- The Council will submit a written response to the non-statutory consultations. Approval of the consultation response will take place at the WPC meeting on 12 December in order to meet the deadline of 18 December.
- The Council, supported by statements made by Cllr Smith and Beavan, reiterated that it was essential that all concerned residents, visitors to and friends of Walberswick get engaged in the current consultation process ongoing until 18 December. This should be done through attendance at consultation events, through written submissions to National Grid, and through writing to elected officials directly. Hundreds of residents and visitors would need to get involved to make our views heard. The Council will use the Village website, the Village News and social media to raise awareness, explain issues and encourage wide-scale engagement. The Council welcomed efforts by Parishioners who were already actively encouraging residents to attend the consultation events and write in through posters and social media.
- Councillor Bassinette, who has responsibility for Sizewell C and other energy projects, was delegated to draft related documents and lead on the effort in consultation with the Chair, the WCLC and with other Parish and town councils similarly impacted by National Grid’s plans. In this regard, it was noted that arrangements were already in place for discussions this week amongst the affected Councils. If timing of deadlines precluded bringing consultation and other written submissions to the full Council for approval before submission, Cllr Bassinette was delegated to make those submissions directly on behalf of the Council, and then to present them to the Council at the first opportunity.
There is now a dedicated webpage on the Parish Council webapages that holds all the updateson Eurolink. It can be viewed by following the link to: http://walberswick.onesuffolk.net/walberswick-parish-council/eurolink/