Protest group opposed to new Sizewell nuclear plant loses appeal

Campaigners opposed to the building of a new nuclear power plant near Sizewell in Suffolk have lost the latest stage of a legal battle with the Government.

Protest group Together Against Sizewell C objects to a decision, made in 2022 by then business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, to give the development the green light.

The group had mounted a Court of Appeal challenge after losing a High Court fight earlier this year.

But three appeal judges dismissed the group’s appeal on Wednesday.

Lawyers representing the group told judges the central issue relates to whether a “development consent order” was lawful “without any assessment” of the environmental impacts of an “essential” fresh water supply.

The group had taken legal action against Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Claire Coutinho and Sizewell C Ltd.

Lawyers representing the two defendants said the appeal should be dismissed.

Together Against Sizewell C argued at a High Court hearing earlier this year that the Government failed to assess possible environmental impacts, including the impact of the water supply, and did not consider “alternative solutions” to meeting energy and climate change objectives.

The Government argued that it had made “legitimate planning judgments”.

A High Court judge – Mr Justice Holgate – had dismissed Together Against Sizewell C’s challenge.

Campaigners said the “environmental impact of such a plant” was “not included in the planning application for the nuclear power plant”, and therefore “neither assessed nor taken into account”.

But the appeal judges backed Mr Justice Holgate’s reasoning.

They said, in a written ruling published online: “He correctly concluded that the Secretary of State was entitled in this case to regard the project as the power station, and that the provision of a permanent water supply was not part of that project but formed a different and separate project.”

They said Mr Justice Holgate had been “right to conclude” that it was “rational for the Secretary of State to defer appropriate assessment of the impact of the permanent water supply” under habitats regulations to a “later stage”, because the “information necessary for a proper assessment” was not available at the time of his decision on the application for “development consent for the power”.

French energy giant EDF, which is due to develop the plant, has said Sizewell C is expected to generate low-carbon electricity to supply six million homes.

Ministers have said the multibillion-pound project will create 10,000 highly-skilled jobs, with its go-ahead being welcomed by unions and the nuclear industry.

A spokesman for Together Against Sizewell C said after the ruling: “We are dismayed by this decision…”