Have your Say!

Of the campaigns I have fought and lost, the Langage power station still rankles. I remain convinced that placing a new gas fired power station right alongside 35,000 people, on the gateway to the moor and rolling beauty of the South Hams was a poor decision by the DTI. Given that they have had to move pylons and dig up half of Devon to install a new pipeline, I feel somewhat vindicated.

However, it is now being built and it is time to accept that it will shortly be part of our daily lives in south west Devon. I was shown around the construction site on Friday. Centrica Plc (British Gas to you and me) are spending 400 million GBP on this ultra-modern complex and currently there are over 500 people working on it - most of them British workers - a number that will rise to a massive 850 this summer. I have never seen so many cranes and tractor type vehicles in my life, with steel and concrete thrusting out of the ground at every turn. It is intended to open the station in late 2008/early 2009. The project is currently running to time and on budget.

Through the constant lobbying of many people, the design has been improved and the foundations lowered so that the impact on all of us locally will be diminished. We will see it from the Deep Lane junction, but probably not from the A38. We won't see it in Plympton until we drive through Langage and I am assured we will not hear or smell it. Time will tell.
It is an impressive feat of engineering. Already the firm are starting to employ the 50 or so people who will run it, several of them local people. I never bought into the idea that we will benefit in our power bills locally, and it seem that we will not. The main benefit will be security of supply.

My primary concern remains the energy park alongside the power station that would attract 2,000 new jobs to the region. This has nothing to do with Centrica, but is owned by Carlton Power Limited. Well, there is a posh sign on the entranceway and some swanky landscaping has been done. But there is not a sign of a building in which these new jobs can be created. Carlton Power - please get a move on. As the economy tightens we need those jobs.

Let me know how you you feel about the projects and what you make of the building work so far. Have you noticed any disruptions to your usual routine? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Yours,
Gary

posted by Gary Streeter M.P. on Monday, February 04, 2008