Potential impact of FMC development – Construction and Socio-Economic impact
The FMC provides a unique and exciting opportunity for the UK to push forward its expertise in science and technology.
It will create job opportunities through the suppliers we will bring in. They will contribute to the local economy through local businesses and local recruitment. We will also be training and developing the scientists and engineers of the future, right here in Berkshire and Hampshire.
We know that while infrastructure programmes like ours bring local benefits with direct employment and local business, they also bring challenges that people living nearby will quite rightly expect us to understand as well as take action on.
It is too early in our assessments to be able to tell you now what we think the potential impacts will be, but we do think it is likely there will be more people coming to work at Aldermaston, and more vehicles accessing the site. As with all construction projects, it is likely there will be noise and dust within our site, and we will need to monitor noise and air quality.
We’re thinking about how we manage potential impacts from FMC and other construction projects already in progress. We’re planning into the future and already taking action – for example opening satellite offices to relocate some teams out of Aldermaston.
We will also use the FMC programme as an opportunity to take a site-wide look at how we manage vehicle movements and see if we can do this better – for example by installing monitoring systems to manage the flows of traffic. We’re assessing how people, materials and equipment move around our Aldermaston grounds, as well as specifics such as traffic and travel management, parking and construction routes, on and off site.
We know traffic is a concern for residents. We are early on in our assessments but will share more as we develop our plans.