TWO of the community groups opposed to a Sizewell C nuclear power station have decided to boycott a meeting with local authority representatives “as a matter of principle”.

However, other groups and individuals opposed to the �6billion project are planning to attend Friday’s meeting – arranged after complaints that anti-nuclear voices were excluded from a “community engagement” seminar last month.

Communities Against Nuclear Expansion (CANE) and the Shut Down Sizewell Campaign have both decided not to attend.

Joan Girling, chairman of CANE, said its members had felt “affronted” by not being invited to attend the community engagement session.

It was insulting, she said, to be offered a special meeting in an attempt to placate groups opposed to Sizewell C.

“All communities have people for and against things,” she continued. “We would have wished to be given the opportunity to hear what others from villages and towns had to say on this very complex subject and to be allowed to express our own concerns.

“Unfortunately that opportunity has passed. A meeting with a few county and district council members and officers will not cut the mustard for our group. It is too little and too late and in our opinion, sadly, a slur on local government.”

Charles Barnett, chairman of the Shut Down Sizewell Campaign, said the group’s exclusion from the community engagement seminar had been “disgraceful” and the decision to boycott Friday’s meeting was a matter of principle.

“We’re being sidelined – that’s what it amounts to,” he added.

A spokesman for Suffolk County and Suffolk Coastal councils said: “It is disappointing that the Shut Down Sizewell Campaign and Communities Against Nuclear Expansion are not going to take the opportunity to meet representatives of the Sizewell Joint Local Authorities Group, but that is of course their choice and their right.

“As with everyone else, including our two councils, they will have the opportunity to make their views clear about the proposed Sizewell C development as and when plans are formally submitted.

“As explained at the time, the community engagement meeting held at Snape was intended to focus on the delivery of Sizewell C with stakeholders who will be involved in that process.”