NATIONAL energy firm E.ON has reassured Oldbury residents that they will not start building the proposed new nuclear power station without permission from central government.

A representative from the company, which recently purchased land in Oldbury with the intention of building a nuclear power station, attended a meeting of Oldbury Parish Council on Tuesday to answer the questions of local people.

Around 35 residents turned up to quiz Tim Prouder, planning and consent manager for E.ON UK, on the proposed new facility.

Chairman of the parish council Barry Turner said the meeting was very constructive.

"Essentially the representative just reinforced everything we already knew. But people came away knowing that no construction work will take place until they have permission from the Government, which will probably be the end of the year or the start of next year.

"I think some people went away from the meeting more reassured but there are others that wouldn’t change their minds no matter what you said."

Cllr Turner added: "As a parish council we are neither for nor against this proposal because at the moment there isn’t enough information to make a decision on."

He said that residents had three main concerns, how the building will look, how affected they will be by the construction phase and the operating of the power station.

"If the E.ON station operates like the existing Magnox plant then I don’t think we could complain too much," said Cllr Turner.

"Magnox has been a good neighbour over the years and we hope that E.ON would be the same."

An E.ON spokeswoman said that the company understood the concerns of residents but that they would not be able to provide detailed drawings of how the reactor will look until the Government makes a final decision on the types of new reactors they will allow in the UK.

"This is an extremely long process and we wouldn’t expect to put in a planning application until probably 2011. Until then we are really happy to talk to local people and listen to their concerns.

"We own many, many power stations across the country and we pride ourselves on being a good neighbour to the nearby communities and we would hope to do the same in Oldbury," she said.

Residents with concerns or questions for E.ON can ring the freephone number 0800 130 3125.