A SERIES of meetings about the Hinkley C nuclear project have heard major concerns about traffic and a housing shortfall.

Planning commissioners have been hearing public opinion on Hinkley C at eight open floor meetings this month – at Bridgwater College’s Cannington campus, Otterhampton village hall in Combwich, Bridgwater town hall and Stogursey Victory Hall.

At the sparesely attended Bridgwater town hall meeting (see picture), Bridgwater town and district councillor David Baker said Hinkley C would cause road junctions in the town to be “overloaded” by extra HGV traffic, even after road improvements.

He added: “The influx of nearly 4,000 EDF workers seeking accommodation will also have a huge impact as individual workers will have to identify their own accommodation.

“We need more housing to accommodate workers, or local families will be affected.”

Claire Pearce, who at another of the meetings had highlighted research which suggested Hinkley C traffic congestion could cost the Bridgwater economy £47million, told the town hall meeting: “The community of Bridgwater will experience a fundamental change due to this project.”

Roy Pumfrey, a Cannington resident, told the hearing Hinkley C traffic could create chaos in the holiday season, while Mike Leaver, also from Cannington told the Mercury afterwards: “It’s going to be dangerous. There will apparently be about 750 lorries a day coming past the end of my drive.

“The whole aspect of village life will be affected. People won’t be able to walk their children to school because it will be unsafe.”

David Eccles, head of EDF’s Bridgwater office, told the Mercury: “All the issues that have been raised were already identified and we have been working closely with the local authorities to address them.

“Our application document is enormous and not everybody has read all of it, so many things were already addressed within that.

“Updates of traffic figures are in the public domain on our website, along with the plans. We are happy to clarify to people anything that’s been misunderstood.”