SIR — As the heat in the debate about EDF's proposed Hinkley C starts to rise, the Sedgemoor and West Somerset Green Party would like to make it clear that we are foursquare against the proposal.

We urge everyone with concerns to participate in the consultation now being conducted by West Somerset and Sedgemoor Councils so that residents' views feed into the councils' report to the soon to be abolished quango, the Infrastructure Planning Commission, if and when EDF's application for the main power station is considered.

We are against the proposal in principle, as new nuclear power stations are not needed 'to keep the lights on' - Government figures show projected non-nuclear energy sources of supply comfortably exceed peak demand projections.

Nuclear does not provide cheap electricity, and its whole lifecycle CO2 impact is far higher than a range of alternative technologies.

Its job creation potential is far less than investing in energy efficiency and microgeneration.

Risks, whether of an accident or as a terrorism-target, may be small statistically but are ever-present.

Then of course, there's the gross immorality of bequeathing to our children the problem and the costs of the toxic waste that nobody knows how to deal with.

There are many valid grounds for objection on a pragmatic basis too.

In addition to issues concerned with highways, wildlife and environmentally protected areas, there would be a disastrous impact on people and settlements close to the site.

Other practical implications include a strong likelihood of  increased homelessness and higher rents all round; tourism meltdown; and the multitude of problems that cannot but arise when thousands of mainly young men from cities around the UK and abroad are drafted into small communities in which they have no roots, no family, no support.

We are very much for our communities developing resilience to the impacts of climate change and imminent fossil fuel scarcity by collectively owning and benefitting from their own renewable energy schemes.

It's happening elsewhere, there's no reason for it not to happen here.

The Hinkley C proposal would then be even more clearly seen for what it is - a ghastly, wastefully-expensive, big and bad irrelevance.

Jamie Robertson (Secretary),

Charles Graham (Co-ordinator),

Sedgemoor and West Somerset Green Party.