Magnox Electric Ltd

Talkin' about regeneration - Magnox South socio-economic scheme

31 July 2008

Four community projects in the south-east have received development grants through Magnox South worth over £127,000; donations which support the NDA in meeting its socio-economic obligations, set out by government in the Energy Act 2004.

Each year since its inception, our five sites have produced separate Socio-Economic Plans to back the NDA in its effort to create dynamic, sustainable local economies for communities living nearby. Experience has proven that this approach can lead to unwanted inconsistency in the way support is offered across the patch, and Magnox South responded to this in the final weeks of 2007, opting instead for a consolidated strategy.

But this left a tiny window in which to publicise the revised scheme, and to encourage bids from potential applicants in time to allocate all the available funding before the year-end.

So as part of Magnox South’s Socio- Economic Scheme re-launch, its Coordinator, Sizewell A’s James Tott set about an awareness campaign based on one-to one contact with key stakeholders. These included Regional Development Agencies, County and District Economic Development Teams, some educational institutions, and community regeneration groups.

Despite short response times, 20 formal bids totalling £671,000 were received before the deadline. And a process of ranking, which utilised tried-and-tested scoring methods, was used to reach the following funding decisions:

St Peter’s High School (Bradwell Site), receiving £51,748 for computer-aided manufacture equipment as part of its bid to achieve specialist school status;

Maldon District Council (Bradwell Site), benefiting from £15,000 towards the cost of employing a Rural Business Advisor;

University Centre Folkestone (Dungeness A Site), which receives £36,000, enabling it to provide a range of higher education taster courses in the Dungeness catchment area; and Norfolk and Waveney Enterprise Services (Sizewell A Site), which will be given £24,500 to fund a study assessing a proposal to redevelop a local business centre.

James Tott said: “Developing awareness of the changes we made, and assessing an unexpected volume of applications, were both equally challenging. I’m looking forward to cementing in the new process over the next twelve months and monitoring the success of the schemes we have already supported.”

The Magnox South socio-economic plan is available to download here.