CONGRATULATIONS to Vanessa Thompson last week for voicing so accurately in her letter some detrimental impacts of the proposed Bradwell B power station for our communities in the Dengie, those all along the Blackwater estuary, and beyond.

Its coincidence with the news of £195 million from tourism was timely.

Tourism income is clearly far more positive for the district than the destruction needed to make way for a vast permanent industrial complex that will be obsolete before it is up and running, yet committing us to pay foreign investors over the odds for what it might eventually produce.

I agree with Vanessa that a nuclear building site and tourism are simply not compatible.

Our political leaders seem strangely divorced from reality on this - why? Why cannot our leaders update their thinking to recognise the rapidly changing energy landscape, instead of blighting our own?

What is under the table we cannot see? Or is Xi’s regime’s recently reinforced opposition to dissent already infectious?

Those with power and influence at every level in government would do far better to further encourage and support British industries to produce, and importantly store, clean energy by a variety of other methods, so boosting both the national economy and our nation’s security for the long term.

Meanwhile the first planning application for Bradwell B is now in, for investigating the site that covers most of the Dengie headland.

How can the same council that turned down a temporary tea room on a Hythe boat because “at risk from flooding”, even begin to think they can support investigations for permanent buildings and extensive infrastructure for a hazardous and complex industry, when even the evidence given in the application confirms most of the site and approach roads risk being 3m plus under water?

I wish I could be sure they won’t.

The closing date for public comments on the application (17/01128) is November 10.

It doesn’t have to be the done deal some people fear it might be if concerns are voiced.

What are yours? If you don’t want this to be the first step to having this foreign owned and designed station on your doorstep now would be a good time to tell Maldon District Council, and your MP too.

Judy Lea

Spital Road, Maldon