"Power the Nation, Preserve Suffolk Coastal. That will be the key message of my debate in Parliament later this week. It is what I put in my election leaflet. It is what I have been working on for many years as a constituency MP, while still in government. We do need power to keep the lights switched on. We need energy security and be able to produce more of that at home. We need to be independent of global gas or oil prices We need more of our energy to come from renewables and nuclear, rather than fossil fuels. Lots of this is dealt with in the recent Energy Act. However, we still need to avoid the vandalism of our landscapes on good greenfield sites, currently used for farming, and turn to brownfield sites instead.
As a minister, I was subject to collective responsibility and the ministerial code also removes you from taking or influencing decisions directly affecting your constituency. Now, I can speak more freely in Parliament on a broad range of subjects affecting the constituency, including energy infrastructure. My first intervention from the backbenches was to raise the impact of energy infrastructure on the East Suffolk coast. I have secured a meeting with the Prime Minister and I also have a debate this week focused solely on this topic. I know the Prime Minister is committed to energy security and the development of renewables, as am I. Meanwhile, the construction of Sizewell C is underway with the preparatory work. It has also received investment from the government to help this. I know this is unpopular for some local residents, though it has a lot of support too. For sure, Sizewell C brings long term, well paid jobs locally. The same cannot be said for these other projects.
I have long been pressing National Grid to publish their full study of the brownfield site of Bradwell as a potential landfall site for cables and interconnectors for offshore wind, instead of burdening the Suffolk coast. Bradwell has hosted nuclear power and hopes to do so again in the future. Bradwell is a large site already connected to the electricity network. Therefore, it seems logical to me to prioritise brownfield sites with existing connections to the electricity network, rather than cables coming ashore along the coast and building huge convertor and substations.
I recently met representatives of National Grid who offer the connection points to energy providers. It follows a similar meeting in Friston earlier this month, where I made a special trip back to the constituency, when Parliament was sitting, to represent constituents. As part of the government’s Offshore
Coordination Support Scheme National Grid are finally doing a proper comparative study, which will assess the environmental aspects of Bradwell as a landing point with the Suffolk options. I’ve been calling on National Grid to undertake a proper comparative study for some time now, backed by the 3,821 people who supported my petition. So, I’m pleased that is now going to happen.
Proper transparent and comparative option appraisals need to take place for the future schemes to give communities confidence, particularly considering the cumulative impact. I am sure that otherwise further legal challenges will happen, slowing up the overall delivery of renewables that we want to see happen. Doing the right thing and looking for alternatives now is sensible to avoid delay in the delivery of renewables. This is a complex, technical issue but I was disappointed that the Green/LibDem Cabinet of East Suffolk Council have stepped back and delegated all authority to a council officer to handle the Sealink energy application. Rest assured, I will continue to make the case on this issue, as I have been doing for many years."