A HOTEL near Highbridge has been granted permission to be repurposed as accomodation for Hinkley Point C workers.

Following a planning application submitted in January 2024, Laburnum Lodges, in West Hunstpill, will be converted to accommodate workers at the EDF power station for a minimum of five years, before then resuming usual operations as holiday accommodation.

EDF has been in talks with Somerset Council on several occasions to increase the workforce at Hinkley Point C, despite many locals already struggling to find rented properties in the Bridgwater area.

The applicant will not make any alterations to the existing buildings and site at Laburnum Lodges, which has operated continuously as a hotel complex since 1985 and sits within 40 acres of surrounding land.

Inside the site are 60 'letting lodges', which operate as part of the hotel complex, and will soon become homes to several Hinkley Point C workers.

Also situated within the grounds is an on-site restaurant, an indoor swimming pool, a gym, tennis court, and laundry services.

In terms of on-site activities, fishing and clay pigeon shooting are currently among the options, along with several recently added escape rooms.

There is also parking availability for up to 120 vehicles.

Access to the site will remain the same, from Sloway Lane, as will parking and turning space arrangements on the site.

Access to the building itself will remain via the existing route within the site.

It's planned that vehicular access into the building will be via a roller shutter door on the north boundary of the site, and pedestrian access into the building via a personnel door adjacent to the roller shutter.

Cllr Leigh Redman, Bridgwater Town Council spokesperson for Nuclear Issues, said in January that the original development consent order (DCO) signed by the secretary of state for Hinkley Point C, indicated that at peak, the number of workers on site would be 5,600.

This number was then raised to 8,600 due to the conversion of Pontins, in Brean, which also became an accommodation site for workers.

There are now over 11,000 workers at Hinkley Point C, and EDF has confirmed its plans to bring in more staff in the near future.

In response to the approval of the Laburnum Lodge plans, Cllr Redman said: "I think it is great that another alternative accommodation has been found and agreed outside of Bridgwater, but there is still a need for more. 

"The more alternative accommodation there is to absorb the massive workforce increase, the less impact on local people, but there is still limited reasonably priced private rented in Bridgwater.

"We are going to be more than double the original workforce, EDF must address the over demand that their staff is creating, putting local people at a disadvantage."

For more information on the application, search reference number 52/23/00010 on the Somerset Council website.