SCRUTINY of the public safety aspect of the proposed Hinkley C development will have to take a back seat to the more technical side of the plans as the area's three local councils battle with limited budgets and resources.

The Free Press has learned that West Somerset Council, Sedgemoor District Council and Somerset County Council have been forced to prioritise which aspects of the development they will focus on in the coming months.

A source told the Free Press EDF's budget pot to help the trio deal with the preliminary works application was running out and some tough decisions were having to be made.

Consultants brought in to focus on the project were being moved "sideways" and some parts of the application were being prioritised over others.

"Certain work streams will have to be sacrificed in favour of the more technical side of the application. One of these work streams is public safety," the source said.

The three have received significant financial assistance from EDF Energy, the owner of Hinkley Point B and prospective Hinkley C developer, through a Government-backed Planning Performance Agreement.

The aim is to ensure companies behind major projects foot the bill for various consultation, environmental and technical investigations that have to be carried out by the local councils, rather than the costs falling on local taxpayers.

Andrew Goodchild, West Somerset Council's planning manager, confirmed work was having to be prioritised.

He said the three authorities met monthly with EDF to draw up work programmes and funding requirements and the most recent discussions had focused on the next three months.

He said: "The councils and EDF have agreed that the priorities for this period are the applications for site preparation works and the temporary jetty, which are being considered by West Somerset Council and the Marine Management Organisation respectively, as well as the work required in the lead up to EDF's submission of the main application for a development consent order to the Infrastructure Planning Commission [IPC].

"The councils and EDF have agreed to bring work to a close in some areas, given that discussions have come to their natural conclusion prior to the submission of the main application to the IPC. In other areas, there continue to be differences of opinions.

"However, the level of funding for all work during the forthcoming quarter is not dissimilar to that agreed in the previous two quarters but it is fair to say that some areas have had to take priority over others."

Mr Goodchild said the councils were now putting the bulk of their resources into preparing a local impact report which would form the basis for the authorities' case when the application was considered by the IPC.

It will be up to the IPC to decide whether a new power station can be built - West Somerset Council only has responsibility for deciding whether EDF can go ahead with large-scale site preparation works under its pending preliminary works planning application.

However, EDF had hoped to submit its proposal to the IPC just after Christmas and anticipated clearing the Hinkley C site in March.

But with no decision yet made on the preliminary works application, it is now unlikely any plans will be put forward to the IPC until 2012.