Bridgwater and West Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger writes for the Mercury with some good news for our area.

The outcome of the election has probably left a lot of people angry, disenchanted, confused and fed up to the back teeth with politics. So I’m glad to be able to report some good news in order to take their mind off the subject.

In fact not one, but three pieces of good news. One, which went largely unreported here during the election frenzy, is that the French nuclear safety authority has finally signed off a clean bill of health for the pressure vessel cap on the European Pressurised Reactor EDF is building in Flamanville, on the Normandy coast.

This is the precursor of Hinkley Point C but considerable doubts had been raised about its structural integrity because of possible weaknesses caused by faulty casting.

It has taken well over a year for the French nuclear watchdog to assess EDF’s safety case and reach a positive conclusion and these have been an anxious few months: a refusal to grant safety approval would not merely have put Flamanville’s construction back but could have led to significant and very costly delays for Hinkley Point C. As it is, a major cloud has been lifted from the project.

Secondly, I was delighted to learn that the threat of industrial action at the site has been removed thanks to an amicable, common-sense settlement. 

My personal feeling is that there is too much at stake and people have too much to gain from Hinkley Point to allow niggling differences of opinion to spill over into the kind of industrial action which, I am glad to say, is rapidly going out of fashion in this country.

And thirdly, as an illustration of precisely what gains there are to be made, it was really thrilling to see the culmination of Malcolm Pyne’s marvellous new project at Junction 24: a cutting plant he needs desperately in order to cope with the surge in activity resulting from his Hinkley Point supply contract.

Malcolm is one of the most astute and far-sighted businessmen I know and I applaud him for his enterprise as, indeed, will all the additional staff he will now be recruiting.