SIR — Cllr David Hall, chairman of the Local Government Association's New Nuclear Local Authorities Group, says more must be done to guarantee communities benefit from developments such as Hinkley C (Free Press December 21).

We would like to point out that there will be no benefits to Somerset residents if the Secretary of State is so unwise as to grant EDF planning approval to build two new EPR reactors on the Hinkley Point site.

We have experienced 45 years of exposure to poisonous radioactive gases from the Hinkley site with all the disastrous health detriment for which previous Secretary of State Chris Huhne claimed compensatory benefits. What benefits?

We hope David Hall and all members of the NNLAG will study all the epidemiological evidence from the UK, Europe and America, plus continuing updates from Fukushima by Greenpeace, and abandon the NNLAG to join the Nuclear Free Local Authorities to which Bristol is about to return.

If the NNLAG want to get a community benefit programme from EDF they could start with supporting compensation claims from the hundreds of Somerset victims who have been forced to take personal financial costs in loss of earnings through ill health, loss of financial support from deceased partners, costs of future health care needs, and funding to replace property in Somerset with relocation to one of the few parts of the UK not exposed to radiation from any nuclear site.

The Office for nuclear Regulation must also revoke its acceptance of EDF's tendentious assurance that extending the lifetime of Hinkley B's AGR reactors is safe; it is not safe and these reactors have experienced so many emergency shutdowns in the past months that they are top of the list for the next Fukushima.

Jo Brown,

Parents Concerned About Hinkley (PCAH).