COUNCILLORS have given up a little-known power they have held for a decade to stop development of the Hinkley Point C nuclear energy station.

The UK’s first new nuclear plant for generations has been running behind schedule and costs have risen to an estimated £26 billion.

French-owned EDF Energy has admitted the first of the reactors is not going to be producing electricity until the summer of 2027 at the earliest, with the second reactor going online a year later in 2028.

But a clause in a 2012 legal agreement, when EDF was seeking planning permission for the development, says Somerset West and Taunton Council (SWT) can restore the site to its former agricultural state if neither reactor was generating electricity by December 31, 2025.

And EDF would have to pay a £63 million bond to SWT to cover some or all of the costs of restoring the land.

The so-called ‘step-in rights’ were agreed as a measure to prevent the Hinkley C site being left abandoned part way through construction if it became obvious for any reason that the station could not be finished.

Now, members of SWT’s planning committee have agreed to waive those ‘step-in rights’ and the £63m bond on the advice of officers who said it was not likely the council would ever exercise the powers.

Planning officer John Burton told councillors the bond only served a useful purpose if it was envisaged the authority might enforce the legal clause.

Mr Burton said: “Members may decide that the opposite applies and that the chances of the council deciding to serve such a notice are so infinitesimally small, that the bond and proviso serve no useful purpose.

“If the council can see that the development is on track to achieve the identified completion by a specific date, then it is highly unlikely to invoke the need for the reinstatement of the land, even though technically it could do so at any time after December 31, 2025.”

Mr Burton said in applying for the clause to be dropped, EDF had made the case that all of Hinkley’s necessary licences and environmental permits had been secured, the project was fully-funded, there was strong political support from the Government, and construction was now significantly advanced.

“On this basis, the applicant concludes that there is no reasonable prospect of the development not being lawfully continued and completed,” he said.

“The Government is committed to a full roll-out of nuclear power. There is no chance that this current Government is going to renege on that.”

However, Hinkley C landowner the Fairfield Estate objected to the council dropping the bond and pointed out that the full cost of reinstating the site would fall on the public purse in a worst case scenario.

Solicitors for the estate said the alternative was that Hinkley Point C would ‘simply be left, half-finished, to rot on the Somerset coastline’.

EDF Energy planning manager Andrew Goodchild told the planning committee: “Will we complete the project? The answer to that is, absolutely, yes.

“The project is now more than 50 per cent complete.

“We have been working for more years now than we expected the project to take, and we are currently employing more than 3,000 local people.

“The consequences of the coronavirus pandemic will be a revised date for when both units will begin generating electricity.

“There can be no doubt about the commitment of our shareholders to the revised date and cost of the project, which will enable us to complete Hinkley Point C.

“It would take a series of significant policy decisions and, arguably, new legislation from the Government, to now stop the project.

“Given what is going on in the world, and the renewed desire for energy security, I think it is fair to say that the need for us to complete the project has arguably never been stronger.

“We are now a world away from the initial position, and the bond no longer serves a useful purpose.”

Cllr Loretta Whetlor, from Watchet, said: “Never say never, because nobody can foresee the future.

“I would hate to see the building stopped now, because whether you like nuclear or not, we need this power station to be completed.”

The committee agreed seven to none, with two councillors abstaining, to give up the ‘step-in’ clause.