Former deputy prime minister joins Saxmundham protest

The former Conservative deputy prime minister joined protesters campaigning in Saxmundham against plans for the energy converter station.

Dame Thérèse Coffey was one of about 260 people who attended and delivered a speech to protesters who had gathered for the march on Saturday, November 2. 

The protest was organised in opposition to plans to create a 26 metre high converter station as part of an offshore wind energy project.

More than 260 people attended the march from Saxmundham Market Hall to the proposed converter station site (Image: SEAS) Power firm National Grid is planning to create the converter station to receive electricity cabling associated with a number of wind farm projects, including Sea Link, LionLink and Nautilus.

Speaking about the number of people who attended the event, Fiona Gilmore, founder of campaign group Suffolk Energy Action Solutions (SEAS), said: "We were very pleased, we had much bigger turnout than expected.

"We marched from the centre of Saxmundham town towards the site where they are planning on building energy converter stations, each one the size of Sizewell A. In their totality they will take up over 80 football pitches worth of space.

Former Deputy prime minister Dame Thérèse Coffey spoke at the march (Image: SEAS) "We had speeches from Tom Daly, and our old MP Thérèse Coffey who was a bit of surprise and we weren't expecting her."

Dame Thérèse lost her seat in this year's General Election to Labour's Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, who was expected to attend the march but was called away.

"Jenny supports us, she came to our rally and she spoke at the Labour conference. 

Hundreds of people arrived at the Suffolk town (Image: SEAS) "We have got cross-party support entirely, from all of the political parties and most important we have local community support and that is starting to grow.

"We have a better solution, we have been working on this for five years, off-shore power is the way forward.

"The infrastructure of our energy grid is broken because we have allowed National Grid to call the shots and do what they want."

Action groups including Suffolk Energy Action Solutions (SEAS), Saxmundham Against Needless Destruction (SAND) and Offshore4sure organised the demonstration on Saturday, which started outside Market Hall in Saxmundham (Image: SEAS)A spokesperson for National Grid said: "We consider all technology options when developing new electricity infrastructure including the use of underground and subsea cables and overhead lines, and we consult extensively with local people. 

"The government and Ofgem require us to assess our project proposals against a range of factors, including impact on the local community and environment, and value for money to bill payers to ensure they are in line with government planning policy, our licence obligations, and net zero targets."