Nuclear power is in many scientifically knowledgeable circles now regarded as a ridiculously outdated, oversized, and inflexible mode of power generation.

In addition its proponents never present whole life costings to include cleaning up and long-term radioactive storage.

The Government, on behalf of taxpayers, is also held to ransom by foreign investors for high eventual unit costs, as well as the perpetual maintenance of that radioactive waste.

Given the added environmental risk of future flooding on the Dengie site, it is therefore all the more astonishing that Bradwell B has not yet been stopped in its tracks.

The only supporting argument used as a mantra by some of our senior local politicians is that it would be “good for our regional employment”, conveniently forgetting the laying waste of large parts of the beautiful and productive Dengie and Blackwater Estuary, and the enormous local disbenefits of becoming a building site for years to come.

This week however, we have heard he plant proposed at Anglesey in the far north west of Wales has been stopped by its Japanese investors.

The national news bemoaned the alleged serious consequences of a loss of potential employment for Anglesey so much that it made me actually check the official statistics.

Sure enough, although both Anglesey and Maldon have similar populations of over 60,000 each, Anglesey has a 2.1 per cent unemployment rate in contrast to our own 0.9 per cent rate.

Given our proximity to London and the booming areas of the M11 corridor, it seems unlikely that difference will decrease.

Anglesey’s situation is in fact even worse, as their actual earnings are hugely different too.

In Maldon in 2018 the average weekly income was £622, compared with Anglesey’s £446. (Males £506 to our £659, and women only £377 to our £566).

One can of course debate whether wages there can stretch further.

It nevertheless leaves the thought that if the UK really does need a new nuclear power station to plug a Government-made energy gap (exacerbated lately by the withdrawal of some incentives for the renewable sector) why not put it on a safer site, and one where it might actually be welcomed?

I stress this isn’t intended as nimbyism, just a genuinely more just and appropriate sharing of an alleged economic “opportunity”.

The 2018 stats also show there are only 350 people receiving out of work benefit in the Maldon district.

I freely acknowledge each one of those probably shares much of the hardship and bitter frustrations painfully experienced over years by our own adopted son in Birkenhead (where he chooses to be near the siblings he was divided from in childhood).

That said, in my working life I moved from Nottingham to London, then Chester, then Essex to get employment, either on my own or in the train of husbands one and two.

To those who argue here that people need nuclear related work laid literally on their doorstep at others’ expense, I say please forgive my being unconvinced.

Judy Lea

Spital Road, Maldon