Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government why Cardiff Grounds was chosen for the deposit of waste material arising from the construction of the new Hinkley Point power station.

We understand that in pre-application discussions, it was recommended to the applicant by English and Welsh Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies that the sediment from the proposed dredging site should remain within the Severn Estuary Special Area of Conservation (SAC) so as not to affect the overall sediment amounts of the SAC. It was decided that disposal in the immediate vicinity of the dredge site may adversely affect some of the SAC feature in the wider area and so it was considered that an established disposal site within the same estuary would be preferential. Cardiff Grounds was chosen as the preferred site. The Licence application was presented with this location as the applicant’s choice and the application was assessed by the licensing authority on this basis.