23 February 2007
Ministers will plough ahead with plans for a new generation of nuclear power stations, despite a court ruling that the public has been misled.
Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Department of Trade and Industry want nuclear generators to provide around 20% of the UK's electricity.
This comes despite a High Court judgment on February 20 that the government's public consultation in July on the use of more nuclear sites was 'misleading', 'seriously flawed' and 'procedurally unfair'.
'Something has gone clearly and radically wrong,' Mr Justice Sullivan, who heard the appeal, ruled.
But Blair later warned that 'this won't affect the policy at all', saying that domestically produced nuclear power was necessary to prevent the UK becoming dependent on 'uncertain supplies of energy' from elsewhere.
The environmental lobby group Greenpeace had successfully argued in court that the government had committed itself to a full consultation in a 2003 energy review.
Sarah North, the group's nuclear campaigner, said that the consultation had been a 'sham'. 'The government completely failed to consult adequately and even kept relevant documents to themselves,' she added.
When the government expressed its preference for new reactors last year, the Local Government Association also raised concerns that changes to the local authority and national planning regimes could ride roughshod over local opposition to new plants.
The DTI has now promised a fresh consultation exercise, but was unrelenting over its proposed new reactors. 'We continue to believe nuclear power has a role to play in cutting [carbon] emissions and helping to give this country the energy security it needs,' a DTI statement said.
Whitehall sources claimed the likelihood is that the court ruling would simply delay formal announcements by a few months.
PFfeb2007
