Planners recommended against nuclear plant in 2019 citing fears for Welsh language
Planning inspectors recommended against a Hitachi-built nuclear power plant in Anglesey on the basis that it could dilute the island's Welsh language and culture, it has emerged.
Hitachi scrapped plans to build a £20bn nuclear power plant at Wylfa in 2020 over cost concerns after failing to reach a funding agreement with UK ministers.
Keir Starmer's government has vowed to make it easier to build major infrastructure projects by reforming the planning system and stopping campaigners from launching 'excessive' legal challenges.
The prime minister unveiled plans for a historic expansion in nuclear power this week, vowing to 'push past nimbyism' and make sites across the country available for new power stations.
Nuclear industry figures believe that the fate of Hitachi's proposed plant at Wylfa demonstrates the problems with the UK's planning system.
Planning inspectors appointed by the UK government recommended that the project be rejected in 2019, warning of its impact on biodiversity, the local economy, housing stock and the Welsh language.
The inspectors' 906-page report said the additional workers required by the project would put pressure on local housing and schools and that 'given the number of Welsh-speaking residents, this could adversely affect Welsh language and culture'.
Hitachi carried out a Welsh language impact assessment as part of its application, which found that the project would need to bring 7,500 workers from outside the area. Anglesey has 70,000 residents and one of the highest concentrations of Welsh speakers in the country.
The impact assessment concluded the extra workers 'could have a major adverse effect on the balance of Welsh and non-Welsh speakers' in the area and 'could adversely affect the use and prominence of the Welsh language within communities'.
But the assessment also found that by creating high-skilled jobs for young people, the project would help preserve the Welsh language on the island. It would have created more than 2,000 local construction jobs for nine years, and about 85% of the plant's workforce would be local under the plans.
Nevertheless, the inspectors' report concluded that 'the matters weighing against the proposed development outweigh the matters weighing in favour of it' and that despite planned mitigations the project could 'adversely affect tourism, the local economy, health and wellbeing and Welsh language and culture'.
Related: What are small modular reactors and why does UK want to build them?
It also found that the developers had not put forward enough evidence to demonstrate that the arctic and sandwich tern populations around the Cemlyn Bay area, where the plant was going to be built, would not be disturbed by construction. There were fears that the birds would abandon the area as a result.
The last Conservative government revived plans for a large-scale nuclear power station at Wylfa and bought the site from Hitachi for £160m. In its election manifesto, Labour pledged to 'explore the opportunities for new nuclear at Wylfa'.
Dan Tomlinson, the Labour MP for Chipping Barnet and the government's growth mission champion, said: 'It's no wonder we've gone from a world pioneer in new nuclear to lagging at the back. Now we've got a government that's willing to back the builders not the blockers, we can stop the delays so the UK can be at the forefront of new nuclear with more jobs and cheaper bills.'
Tom Greatrex, the chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, said: 'It is absolutely symptomatic of how planning processes for significant infrastructure projects can disappear down a cwningar – the Welsh for a rabbit warren.'
Linda Rogers of the campaign group People Against Wylfa B said Hitachi withdrew 'because the government wasn't able to provide adequate funding as far as they were concerned'.
She added: '[The plans] broke environmental regulations – which this present government is laughing at, at a time when we need to increase biodiversity – and affected very much the local wildlife, particularly terns. And it was bad for the Welsh language. There were a lot of issues why it was not appropriate to build at Wylfa.'
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