A nuclear power station was blocked by officials who were concerned about its impact on the Welsh language, it emerged yesterday.
Senior industry figures slammed the move as Sir Keir Starmer seeks to launch a generation of mini nuclear plants by watering down planning laws.
In one farcical case, government planning inspectors rejected a multi-billion-pound project on the Welsh island of Anglesey on grounds including the negative ‘socio-economic’ impact on the local community.
Claiming it could put pressure on housing, forcing locals to relocate, the five planning inspectors added in their report: ‘In turn, given the number of Welsh-speaking residents, this could adversely affect Welsh language and culture.’
The 906-page document was cited by industry figures as an example of the difficulty with opening the nuclear power stations that Sir Keir announced his support for on Thursday.
The PM has vowed to ‘build, baby, build’ and ‘enable the builders not the blockers’ by watering down planning laws as part of his bid to spark economic growth by building new infrastructure.
The bid for the Wylfa power station in Anglesey was made by the Japanese firm Hitachi.
It was worth up to £20billion and was said to be the biggest energy project ever proposed in Wales.
Planning inspectors took six months to examine the case but ultimately recommended that ministers, who must approve large projects, to reject planning consent.
Hitachi later pulled out of the project, citing funding issues.
The final report into the project said that it should maintain and try to strengthen ‘Welsh language and culture as an important part of the island’s social fabric and community identity’.
The inspectors’ report added: ‘The additional pressure that would be placed on accommodation… could even with the proposed mitigation, adversely affect tourism, the local economy, health and wellbeing and Welsh language and culture.’
Concerns were also raised that the scheme would not meet UN environmental standards, by disturbing Arctic and Sandwich terns.
Sam Dumitriu, head of policy at the Britain Remade think-tank, told the Times there was ‘no better example of the need to reform our planning system than the saga of Wylfa Newydd’.
He added: ‘The real threat to the Welsh language in Ynys Mon [Anglesey] is a lack of well-paying jobs for locals who have lost their nuclear power station and the aluminium-smelting plant that it provided with cheap green power.
‘We need to rewrite the planning rules to fast-track the new power station on the island that locals so desperately want.’