ANGRY residents living in the shadow of Hinkley Point fear they will become virtual prisoners in their own homes - even before the go-ahead is given for work to begin on a proposed third power station.

They have accused Hinkley C developer EDF Energy of caring little for the needs of local people by putting the national drive for new power stations before their well-being.

At a consultation meeting held in Stogursey on Tuesday, residents called on the company to make road improvements and introduce schemes to help pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders cope with the additional traffic due to be generated by its proposals, well before any work is carried out.

They feared they would be unable to walk in the lanes around their homes, would have difficulty crossing the road or driving out onto the busier stretches once construction lorries and workers swamped the area.

EDF chiefs could only offer assurances that their concerns were being noted and that money would be made available for a range of purposes, including unspecified road safety schemes.

Although the energy giant has yet to apply for permission to build Hinkley C, it has lodged an extensive preliminary works application with West Somerset Council to prepare the ground for the proposed new power station.

The development site is bigger than the whole village of Williton and Wembley Stadium could be filled twice over with the soil earmarked for removal as part of works to level the land in the hope a development consent is granted by the national Infrastructure Planning Commission for Hinkley C.

If permission is not forthcoming for the new station, EDF has promised it will restore the land - despite planning to remove hedgerows and woodland and culverting the Holford Stream during the 15 months of preparation work.

On Tuesday, around 50 people from Stogursey Parish packed into a planning consultation meeting organised by West Somerset Council and EDF in the Victory Hall.

The meeting was an opportunity for the council's planning manager Andrew Goodchild and EDF's planning team of Steve Mannings and Ian Bryant, together with EDF local representative David Eccles, to outline what was involved with the preliminary works application.

Mr Bryant said EDF was hoping to secure permission and begin work sooner rather than later and accepted the proposal involved "substantial earthworks".

He said EDF would retain all "uncontaminated soil" on-site and capping materials used on levelled-off land would be kept to a minimum to prevent the need for any additional lorry movements.

But residents criticised EDF for claiming construction workers would be able to use public transport to get to work and said the local lanes and the C182 road into Hinkley would not be able to cope with the additional traffic.

EDF's representatives were also heckled when they were unable to say exactly how many vehicles would be using the roads when existing traffic was added to the predicted HGV movements.

Mr Goodchild sought to calm the meeting by assuring residents that their questions would be answered and the responses made available via the district council's website, the council's offices or EDF's offices in Bridgwater.

He also agreed to extend the consultation period for responses from residents in Stogursey Parish from January 12 to the end of the month, but said it was vital people contacted the council's planning department before the 12th to ensure they were "in the system" before lodging their full response.

According to EDF, during the peak works period there would be an average of around seven or eight lorries travelling along the A39 and on through Stogursey and back again every hour.

The company wants the site to be operational between 7am and 6pm from Monday to Friday and from 7am to 1pm on Saturdays.

There would be an average workforce of around 300, peaking at approximately 560 towards the end of the works, although on-site parking would only be provided for 250 vehicles to encourage workers to car-share.

Stogursey parish councillor Sue Goss called for the road infrastructure to be upgraded before any work was carried out and said the firm's plans to carry out piling on a proposed jetty up until 10pm at night would make an unbearable situation even worse.

Peter Farmery of Shurton said the preparation work would decimate local wildlife and said more consideration should be given to constructing roundabouts, pedestrian crossings, cycle paths and bridleways.

But Mr Bryant agreed with Linda Robinson of Newnham Farm, Shurton, who said Hinkley workers already drove too fast on the C182 and accepted it was a site-wide problem which would have to be tackled.

Mr Mannings said EDF would write various conditions into its sub-contractors' contracts to ensure workers adhered to designated routes, speed limits, operating hours and transport strategies.

"All we can do tonight is reassure you we will be looking to keep vehicle movements down," Mr Bryant said.

Fears were also raised about noise, dust and light pollution affecting people's lives, although Mr Bryant stressed a wide range of "mitigation measures" would be put in place to limit the impact as far as possible.

But he did agree with Linda Robinson of Newnham Farm, Shurton, who said Hinkley workers already drove too fast on the C182 and he accepted it was a site-wide problem which would have to be tackled.

But Lesley Flash of Shurton questioned why anyone should believe anything when EDF was currently only offering promises.

She said the firm's presentation had been geared to showing the works in a positive light and branded the compensation offered by EDF to local residents as "niggardly".

"Why should we believe a word you say when we know how badly and how quickly you want to build this?" she said.

Mr Eccles said EDF was offering "substantial" sums in compensation, including £250,000 specifically for Stogursey.

A further £1 million would go into a community trust fund for local communities affected by the works and another £1 million would be put into a social and economic fund to help offset the impact on the tourism industry and to attract inward investment.

EDF is also proposing to give £600,000 to the West Somerset Community College to develop a "Hinkley Ready Skills Project" and £500,000 to Bridgwater College for a construction skills centre.

Mr Goodchild said if everything went according to plan, the preliminary works application could go before the council's planning committee at the end of February "at the earliest".

"This is a massive issue for everybody and there are hundreds of questions that need to be answered," he said.