Bridgwater schoolgirl Maisie is centre's 75,000th visitor

A nine-year-old schoolgirl from Bridgwater has been given the VIP treatment by EDF Energy after becoming the 75,000th visitor to the Hinkley Point Visitor Centre in Angel Place shopping centre in the town.

Maisie Smith dropped into the centre to take part in a National Bird Box Week half term activity and was given a personal welcome and presented with a big bag of goodies to mark the special occasion.

The Wembdon St George’s Primary School pupil is a regular visitor to the centre, which opened in December 2012, and her latest trip saw her make a bird food cake to take home for the feathered friends in her garden.

The interactive centre is extremely popular with local people of all ages and is now renowned for being a ‘one stop shop’ for all EDF Energy enquiries in Somerset.

As well as offering a wealth of information on nuclear generation, renewable and nuclear new build activities, the centre provides guided tours of both Hinkley Point B power station and the Hinkley Point C site.

Staff also regularly arrange themed events, particularly in the school holidays, and there is a weekly customer services drop-in to enable people to chat through tariffs, electricity bills and any other topics.

Sherryl Sellick, visitor centre coordinator, said: “It gave us enormous pleasure to welcome Maisie as our 75,000th visitor and it’s wonderful to see so many young people taking an interest in our activities.

“Since we opened the visitor centre over five years ago, the community has made great use of the facility, either through wanting to know more information about nuclear power, raising a customer query, or supporting our special themed events programme. We are looking forward to welcoming our next 75,000 visitors.”

Peter Evans, Hinkley Point B’s station director, added: “Openness and transparency is inherent in everything we do, and the great work and success of our visitor centre is a crucial factor with building trust in the local community.

“Reaching the 75,000th visitor milestone is a tremendous achievement, and is testament to the great efforts and hard work of everybody involved with the visitor centre setup.”