This week we have had some good news for Dungeness and the future of
the nuclear power on Romney Marsh. EDF energy, the company that owns
and operates Dungeness B has confirmed that it is in talks with
National Grid and the Government about extending the life of the
station. This means, from where we are now, that Dungeness will be
producing electricity for Kent for at least another ten years. This is
good news for everyone who works at and with the power station. The
Government has also published this week a draft energy bill which
paves the way for the future investment needed to build the next
generation of nuclear power stations. These new sources of nuclear
energy will provide a large amount of the low carbon electricity that
this country will need in the coming decades. This Bill has been
welcomed by the energy companies that will build the new fleet of
stations and I will be urging them to look seriously at Dungeness.
The Government has made clear that the ‘door remains open’ to building
a new power station there, but that any company taking proposals
forward would need to satisfy the planning inspector that they could
minimise and compensate for any loss of the protected habitats at the
site. I believe Dungeness is an excellent site for a new station as it
is located in a place of high energy demand and most of the ground
where it would be built was previously disturbed during the
construction of the A and B stations. On Thursday this week, I will be
raising this issue at a private meeting for Kent MPs with the Prime
Minister at 10, Downing Street. I want the Government to give a
positive signal for Dungeness by including it on the preferred list of
sites for new nuclear reactors.
Romney Marsh residents should have now all received their consultation
documents from Shepway Council relating to the idea of whether or not
we should build a dump for the UK’s high level nuclear waste somewhere
in the middle of the Marsh. I believe that the Marsh deserves a better
future than this, and I would urge all residents to make sure that
they respond to the consultation and let the council know their views.
If people reject this idea it will go no further.
This week I have also been involved in launching a new publication
focused on getting more growth into the economy and developing a 21st
century industrial strategy for Britain. This work is called ‘The
Growth Factory’ and can be found online at www.thegrowthfactory.co.uk
. I would also like to thank local web designer, Warren Sutton from
www.created.co who built the site.
On Tuesday this week I was also delighted to welcome pupils from St
Martin’s school in Folkestone to parliament for their tour of the
House of Commons.
Finally, the application process has opened for M&C Saatchi’s
Folkestone based introduction to advertising, work training programme.
People aged between 18 to 24 can apply online at
www.mcsaatchilab.co.uk . This will give the participants the chance to
learn everything from getting to grips with the client brief and
coming up with great advertising ideas, to working with photographers,
designers and film makers on producing the ads.