FRENCH energy giant EDF has brought forward its plans to build a bypass at Cannington to ease traffic and noise fears over the proposed Hinkley Point C.

The company announced this week that work on the bypass was expected to start in mid 2013, subject to planning consent - six months early.

Construction of a planned freight lay-down facility at nearby Combwich is now scheduled to start after the completion of the bypass in 2015, rather than while it is being built.

The changes in the phasing schedule for the hoped-for new nuclear power station have been made possible because of prolonged remediation work on the Hinkley C site.

Contractors have found significantly more asbestos materials than initially expected - a legacy of the construction of the Hinkley A and B stations in the 1960s and 1970s.

A spokesman for EDF said the refinement to the schedule would further limit traffic impacts on the local community, whilst ensuring that the necessary infrastructure was in place in good time to support the main construction of the proposed station.

The construction of the freight lay-down facility would allow traffic to use the new bypass for the delivery of construction materials not arriving via the temporary jetty on-site.

EDF is due to make a final decision on whether to press ahead with its plans for the power station at the end of the year.