Sizewell C: Planning shake-up 'runs roughshod over objectors'

The planned Sizewell C plant is expected to cost about £20bn

A government shake-up of planning which could bring forward the building of Sizewell C is "deeply dismaying", campaigners said.

New legislation aims to cut planning rules and get rid of environmental assessments to speed up construction.

The nuclear power station in Suffolk is among projects to be "accelerated as fast as possible", the Treasury said.

Stop Sizewell C said the plan "rode roughshod over the ability to fight damaging projects".

The scheme, currently estimated to cost £20bn, was given government approval in July, against the advice of the Planning Inspectorate.

The new plant would be built by French-owned EDF next to the existing Sizewell B, which is still generating electricity, and Sizewell A, which has been decommissioned.

Fellow campaigning group Together Against Sizewell C (TASC) has instigated a judicial review process over the planning approval, claiming it was illegal.

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Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, who gave Sizewell the go-ahead when he was business secretary, made the latest announcement as part of his Autumn statement.

New legislation would be brought forward to "address barriers by reducing unnecessary burdens to speed-up the delivery of much-needed infrastructure", the Treasury said.

Anti-nuclear campaigners protesting on the beach in the shadow of the decommissioned Sizewell A, which generated electricity between 1966 and 2006

It added that it hoped the vast majority of projects - including roads, railway stations, and offshore wind farms - would begin construction by the end of 2023, subject to the appropriate consent and funding.

The list includes the Norwich Western Link, which would complete the bypass around the north of the city across the River Wensum, and Cambridge South railway station.

Mireille Heald, of campaign group Stop the Wensum Link, said the policy was a "slippery slope towards development without any due care given to the environment".

"Regulations have been put in place for reasons nearly all of us support - to protect us and our health, and ensure we take care of the places we live in," she said.

"Reducing the need for environmental assessments would mean going blind into projects - not knowing what is being put at risk and whether that damage can be avoided."

Stop Sizewell C added that the "burden" of environmental assessments and bureaucracy in the consultation process was appropriate for a nuclear project such as Sizewell, which is in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Their thoughts were echoed by TASC, which added that the Sizewell C plan faced "many significant hurdles before it can even begin to be considered as a done deal".

Anti-nuclear campaigners have objected to the plant on several grounds, including that it would be built next to the RSPB's Minsmere nature reserve and would have a negative effect on wildlife.

Greenpeace has called the project an "expensive white elephant" that was "trashing an important nature reserve".

"A significant proportion of the delays to the Sizewell C planning process have been down to EDF stalling and changing its delivery ideas rather than the planning system," Stop Sizewell C said.

The government wants to build eight new nuclear power plants in a bid to reduce the UK's dependence on fossil fuels and energy imports.