FARMER are celebrating as a “completely bonkers” plan to turn hundreds of hectares of Somerset farmland into salt marshes has been paused.
EDF had planned to create 340 hectares of salt marsh at four villages in Somerset and Gloucestershire to compensate for the fish that would die at Hinkley Point C, near Stogursey, on the edge of the Quantock Hills.
But now EDF says that a new technology pioneered in the South West could be used to protect fish instead and has put the salt marsh plan on pause — but said it cannot yet rule it out entirely.
“The last few months since September 2024 have been very trying ones for us all, hopefully this decision by EDF will allow us to move on.”
Farmers and landowners in the village found out their land could be flooded in letters from EDF on September 9. Martin Sewell of Kingston Seymour Parish Council compared the letters to a “surprise attack” at a packed public meeting with EDF bosses.
EDF had said it had to find a way to compensate for the deaths of fish in its cooling system as it draws in water from the Severn Estuary. Although it does have a fish return mechanism to reduce the numbers of fish killed — the first British nuclear power station to have one — it is predicted that 44 tonnes of fish a year will slip through the mechanism.
The planning permission for Hinkley Point C originally stipulated that it would use 280 loudspeakers making a noise louder than a jumbo jet taking off to keep fish away from the water intakes known as an acoustic fish deterrent. But EDF said it would be dangerous for divers to install the speakers and instead proposed creating salt marshes.
Now the company says that it has found a new technology developedscares off fish using high-frequency sounds from the surface. The company said: “This option is now our preferred solution rather than pursuing saltmarsh creation. While we test the effectiveness of the new technology, we are pausing all design and development work on saltmarsh creation.
“We are also cancelling all of our compulsory rights of entry agreements (Section 172 notices) in the local area. As a result, we are not planning a consultation on saltmarsh creation and we hope that it will no longer be required.
“Until the scientific work on the acoustic fish deterrent is complete, we are not yet able to rule out the need for saltmarsh creation in the future.”
Kingston Seymour’s local MP Tessa Munt said: “Finally, there seems to be a wave of common sense from EDF.
“I will however keep a close eye on developments as they have described this as a ‘pause to all development work’ not a cancellation. Destroying hundreds of acres of biodiverse landscape in the name of environmental mitigation is nothing less than completely bonkers.”