There have been occasions in the last few years when the vision of Hinkley Point C has appeared to float just like a mirage – distant and unattainable.

So it must have been to everyone’s enormous relief to see the huge, penultimate piece of the jigsaw levered into place when the agreement with the Chinese government was signed a couple of weeks back.

Just a few more signatures are needed on the financial arrangements now and we should then be all clear for work on the project to crank up in April.

And although I understand that the anti-nuclear protestors are going to carry on protesting I firmly believe the majority of local people are whole-heartedly in favour of a project which is going to transform this corner of the West Country.

After all, many of them have had a nuclear power station as a neighbour for more than 50 years and have been entirely content with the situation.

Talking to people who have been in this area far longer than I have I been impressed by the memories they hold of how the local economy prospered during the building of both A and B stations at Hinkley Point.

And I have not a shred of doubt, either, that Hinkley Point C is going to have the same enormous impact on the economic wellbeing of the area.

We mustn’t forget all the associated benefits: the local companies which are going to; become suppliers and which will nearly all need to take on more staff to cope: the spin-off for local farmers whose produce will be used to feed the huge workforce.

And then there are the long-term gains, too, including the nuclear college planned for Cannington and which will become a national centre of excellence for training up the next generation of nuclear engineers.

Once the project gets underway we are all going to be inconvenienced in some way or another, by roadworks, construction traffic, perhaps the occasional strain on local services.

But it’s my firm and abiding belief that all that is a very small price to pay in return for the decades of financial and economic benefits that will flow from what will be the largest civil engineering project in Europe.

Ian Liddell Grainger