Having recently bought a book of writings by the poet John Betjeman, I discovered just how much he loved Essex. He used the Green Man pub at Little Braxted as a secret rendezvous when he was courting his wife-to-be (her family disapproved). He regarded the county as much underrated, with 'the deepest and least disturbed country within reach of London'.

The poet particularly loved the Dengie Peninsula, 'a place of narrow lanes which take sudden right-angle bends revealing rows of weather-boarded cottages, small hills with elms on them, and finally the great salt marshes, with their birds and sea lavender.'

No surprise then that Betjeman turned up at the debate on the first Bradwell Nuclear Power Station in 1955. According to writer Gillian Darley, an inquiry was triggered by the likely impact of the Magnox power station on the Saxon chapel of St Peter's on the Wall – and took just five days.

Tom Driberg, until 1955 Labour MP for Maldon, was a key figure in challenging the plans (he lived in Bradwell Lodge). Another heavyweight opponent was the Council for Protection of Rural England, who sent Assistant Secretary Mervyn Osmond. Betjeman, a keen supporter of SPAB (the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings) made the third.

Betjeman described the rest, crowded into Maldon's Congregational Chapel, as 'mad-eyed preservationists, the shrewd farmers and representatives of the fishing and oyster interests, all giving up time and money voluntarily to save the Dengie Peninsula.'

On the other side were 'the men from the Central Electricity Board… in dark, neat suits, hard collars and horn-rimmed spectacles, with files and papers (first-class fares and time paid). They reminded me of men from Nineteen Eighty-four or the novel by C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength.'

Writing in 'The Spectator', Betjeman wasn't afraid to suggest the process was rigged: 'It seems odd that the minister should be the judge of the activities of one of his own departments'. He also had little time for lawyers: 'The skill of the lawyers is amazing, particularly the way they lead a witness into a trap and pounce… for us members of the public the ordeal is terrifying.'

In the end, the five-day inquiry was limited in scope, mainly focusing on potential damage to oyster breeding grounds. Nuclear waste was dismissed as a non-issue: 'Methods of dealing with radioactive waste matter were so well known in all the countries of the world that there was no hazard attached to the disposal of them.'

By contrast the Sizewell B inquiry took 340 days spread over three years. The debate over the current Bradwell B proposals looks set to rumble on for many years.

John Betjeman died in 1984. With his love for the Dengie, his passion for rural railways and his frequent expressions of loathing for busy roads and modern housing projects, he would no doubt have much to say were he still alive!