Mercury News
Sedgemoor District Council delays council tax setting
4:38pm Tuesday 14th February 2012
BOSSES at Sedgemoor District Council have adjourned its council tax setting process until next week following a dispute with Hinkley Point owners EDF Energy.
The authority had been due to set its rates on Tuesday but the meeting was adjourned for council chiefs to ask questions to EDF about the amount of money the authority will receive.
EDF has been funding Sedgemoor’s scrutiny of its application to the Infrastructure Planning Commission to build a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point under an arrangement between the parties.
However, the latest payment has led to a dispute between the parties over payment, which the council says needs sorting out before it will set its tax.
Council leader Duncan McGinty said: “It is entirely improper that we use extremely scarce public money to fund the development process relating to a privately-owned commercial asset of a company.
“The IPC will be expecting to see properly researched evidence from the councils as to information contained in EDF’s application and we are not prepared to pay for this from local tax. This is a core business for EDF, who will be spending many millions on their application. They will also be buying in the best legal and technical advice as they need. We need to be able to properly challenge their claims and this does not come cheap given the resources they have put behind their own professional team.”
An EDF Energy spokesman said: “The voluntary funding arrangement with Sedgemoor District Council was entered into in 2009. There was no legal requirement for EDF Energy to do this but the company voluntarily entered the agreement because it was, and is, the right thing to do.
“The Hinkley Point C project has now entered a different phase since EDF Energy's application was accepted for examination by the IPC, changing the amount and type of work the councils will need to do in future. EDF is continuing to support councils to help them provide input to the IPC.
“The company remains committed to working with the community as the project progresses and continues to have a responsibility to its customers - many of whom live in Somerset - to keep control of its costs.”
Sedgemoor District Council must legally set its council tax by March 10 – the council will meet again on February 24.