I was heartened by the massive turnout for the meeting held by Severnside Together Against Nuclear Development (STAND) at the Annexe

Inn, Lydney on Thursday.

I was also extremely impressed with the excellent presentation. This made clear two very important points. The quality of the presentation demonstrated beyond doubt that STAND have done their homework and researched this issue very thoroughly.

Everything that was presented was based on hard facts with no theorising or scaremongering... the facts are scary enough! The high level of turnout (the function room was packed to capacity) demonstrated that people are very concerned about this proposed development.

I think the most alarming fact to come to light was that, despite the all too recent disaster in Fukushima and despite Horizon's (the company responsible for the design of the proposed plant) own assessment of the area as 'high risk', there are no strategies in place to deal with evacuation in the event of a disaster. If there are any representatives of Horizon, Hitachi and/or any of the local councils around the Gloucestershire area, Forest of Dean area or the Bristol area who would like to dispute this, please do so. But don't just tell us that there are plans in place... tell us what the evacuation plans are. I'm sure readers would want to know and it is rather important that we know what to do in the event of some kind of disaster at the plant.

Many people in areas within 30 Km of Fukushima suffered because the authorities played down the disaster for fear of bringing the nuclear energy industry into disrepute. I would like to think that our own government, our own local authorities and Horizon and Hitachi would put a higher priority on the safety of those of us living so close to the epicentre of such a disaster, but I have yet to be given any reason to believe that our safety is of primary importance. We need something a little more reassuring than crossed fingers.

All alternative sources of energy are readily dismissed by our government as unworkable or unfeasible or prohibitively expensive. But the reality is that there are not the investment opportunities in alternative fuels that there are in nuclear energy. Why has Hitachi suddenly taken an interest in nuclear energy? Their background is in televisions. Hitachi's only interest in nuclear energy is the vast profits it would realise for them. Let's not kid ourselves that Hitachi are going to be falling over themselves to alert the masses to any of the dangers we would be facing... and anyone hoping that well-heeled Hitachi executives are going to be buying property in Oldbury in order to live close to their investment should be prepared to be disappointed.

Although STAND are a non-political organisation, my own personal view is that politics cannot be left out of this issue. Our current coalition government makes it perfectly clear that they favour the interests of giant corporations over the needs of the people. The same was true for the previous Labour government. Hence the taxpayers' bale-out of the banks, hence the current cuts to welfare and public services while giants like Google and the rest of the 'big boys' get away with paying little or no tax. But now they are gambling with our lives to serve the interests of any company big enough to invest in this highly dangerous industry.

The Forest of Dean has some of the most beautiful countryside in the UK... yet it could be rendered uninhabitable for several hundred years. All it would take is an unforeseen (but not unforeseeable) event like a higher than usual tide combined with a forceful Severn bore. Combine that with the global rising water levels due to the continually melting ice caps and we're in trouble! We have experienced a high level of unpredictable weather conditions in recent years and even the Met Office is having trouble accurately predicting weather. Investors are gambling only that, touch wood, everything will go OK and they'll make a huge amount of money against the possibility (God forbid) that they may have to pay out a few million to neutralise a disaster-stricken plant. The fact that such a disaster could cost hundreds, if not thousands of lives and render a huge chunk of the South West a no-go area for generations to come is not really their problem and doesn't enter into the equation.

If we are going to protect our homes, our families, our land and our descendants, then we cannot lie back complacently and leave it all to that mysterious entity we call 'Them' because 'They' are all far too preoccupied with counting the bucks. We have to do this ourselves. We did it with HOOF and we halted the badger-kill. This is going to be more of a challenge because of the level of investment already committed by buying up vast areas of land for the proposed extended site... but we can do it.

If you didn't attend the meeting on Thursday, please attend the next one. Details will be published in the press. To find out more, visit the website (http://www.nuclearsevernside.co.uk">http://www.nuclearsevernside.co.uk). We can do this.

– Ron Tocknell, Whitecross Road, Lydney.