Update on Eurolink: Meetings with MP Therese Coffey and East Suffolk Council
On 25 November, at the request of a group of Parish and Town Councils, including WPC, MP Therese Coffey held a public meeting on Eurolink and Sealink in the Campsea Ashe Village Hall. The numbers able to attend was limited by the size of the hall. The MP had been offered the use of Snape Maltings but she declined it for the smaller venue. From Walberswick, we had one Councillor, one WCLC Trustee and a member of the public in attendance.
Dr Coffey explained that she was not supportive of the offshore cables and substations coming on shore in our area in an uncoordinated and potentially destructive manner. She and some other local MPs were working together in a group called “OffSET” to try to get Government to support a better approach for increasing wind generation offshore which would involve a North Sea cable that could attract many different developers and the use of brown field sites, such as Bradwell in Essex, for any new onshore infrastructure. She expressed disappointment with the approach and performance of National Grid and was dismayed that BEIS, National Grid and her own Environment Agency had refused to show up for her meeting. She then went on to claim that her ability to influence energy policy was limited and that she could not represent the interests of her constituency in her role as cabinet minister. While glad to know that she objected to the proposed projects and to the uncoordinated approach being taken by each of the energy projects, the meeting was surprised and dismayed that she felt her role in Government was not to represent her constituents. The view of the meeting was that as SoS for the Environment and having sat in high level cabinet positions in the last three Governments, we expected Suffolk Coastal to have more voice in what was being done to the environment and to our communities by the lack of a joined-up Government energy strategy.
The meeting expressed very strong concerns about the impact that the concept of Suffolk as “The Energy Coast” would have on the Suffolk Coastal constituency as well as the nation that could result in putting up to 1/3rd of the entire country’s future energy supply in 5 square miles of rural Suffolk. Speakers expressed disbelief that Suffolk’s beaches, AONB and crumbling coast was being considered as a landing site for European interconnectors when there were numerous suitable brownfield locations. In response to questions about further consultation with her constituency, the MP stated categorically that she would not hold another public meeting and that constituents could write to her with concerns. For those interested, Libby Purves has an article about the meeting in the Times on 28 November; follow the link to see it: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/village-hall-reveals-our-national-power-failure-tq7j0jvf9?shareToken=90716a71086be7ed6338a87084d3205a (Note: this opens in a new window).
On 28 November, East Suffolk Council representatives held a series of meetings with Parish and Town Council representatives to get feedback on Eurolink and Sealink. Along with others, WPC expressed our unequivocal objection to the use of Walberswick and other inappropriate parts of our coast as landing sites and to the massive industrialisation of the coast associated with the construction of Sizewell C, the Friston sub-station and possibly 3 more substations connecting Eurolink, Sealink and Nautilus as well as additional pylons coming from Sizewell. We expressed the view that East Suffolk Council must object to the development which it had not done for Sizewell C nor the Friston sub-station and that the plethora of new cables coming on shore was a direct result of siting these enormous energy projects here without adequate supporting infrastructure. We expressed the view that it was the responsibility of ESC to highlight the unsustainability and massive environmental and societal damage associated with the failure of energy project coordination.
The Parish Council again strongly encourages every concerned resident, visitor and friend of Walberswick to attend one of the consultation meetings (the next one is at the Stella Peskett Hall in Reydon from 10-4 on Wednesday 30 November) and then to write in to express your views.