At the Maldon presentation on March 6, it was difficult not to be impressed and overawed by the sheer size and complexity of the proposed new nuclear station at Bradwell B.

But it was also difficult not to feel a bit sorry for the CGN Ltd’s staff as they tried to show how sensible and deliverable it will be.

The development site - which isn’t shown on their main document cover, extends to the 1,400-year-old St Peters Chapel, damaging conservation areas and nature reserves and the estuary marshland landscape.

It will take at least 12 years to build, maybe 15.

Massive constructions - reactors, cooling towers, waste dumps on raised earthwork platforms, new sea walls, sea outlet tunnels, port facilities, accommodation for thousands, highway works along miles of access roads, lorry marshalling areas out in the countryside, more workers on site than currently live in Maldon town.

CGN’s as yet untried reactors will produce the energy, and they are seeking residents’ comments, but only on how to mitigate the impact not on whether it’s needed at all.

The site was designated in 2011 but since then the world has changed unrecognisably. Nuclear costs have ballooned and these mega stations need vast subsidies from consumers in electricity bills while renewable costs have plummeted.

Wind and solar now provide over 20 per cent of UK electricity, up from 1 per cent in 2006, while nuclear has declined from over 20 per cent to just 12.5 per cent in 2019.

This station could cost between £15 billion and £30 billion and that could kill it stone dead.

Maybe there could be some kind of judicial review or other challenge to the original designation of Bradwell with its out-of-date information, as per the third Heathrow runway?

Will the prospect of this gargantuan and expensive disruption to communities - traffic, housing and labour markets, and the prospect of a 100-year radioactive waste dump at sea level - outweigh the district council’s apparent eagerness for it?

Andrew Broadbent

Woodrolfe Park, Tollesbury