The environmental impact of a new nuclear power station will be the subject of a new public inquiry.

Around 11,000 people are currently working at the Hinkley Point C construction site in Somerset, with this number expected to rise to 12,000 in the coming months.

EDF Energy secured planning consent for the power station back in 2013 and construction began three years later.

The planning permission required EDF to invest in a number of measures to offset the environmental impact of the new facility.

The company is now seeking to make a number of changes to the agreed measures, the BBC has reported.

Any changes will require the approval of the Planning Inspectorate - resulting in a new public inquiry where residents can have their say.

The new inquiry is expected to begin by the autumn of 2025.

Punchline reported in January that completion of Hinkley Point C had been delayed by up to four years. 

The UK's first nuclear power station to be built since 1995 is now likely to start generating power in 2031, rather than the original scheduled date of 2027, according to EDF, the company behind it.

The cost of the project has also escalated - predicted to come in between £25 and £26bn at the start of the project in 2015, it is now forecast at 'between £31 billion and £34 billion in 2015 values' - around £46bn in today's prices. Any further delay would add around £1bn per year (in 2015 values).