Suffolk Coastal MP Therese Coffey has told a campaigners' meeting she has been 'unleashed' to help community groups fighting plans to route electricity cables through the Suffolk countryside.

Last week, Dr Coffey announced that she was resigning from her role as environment secretary in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's cabinet.

In her resignation letter, she said she was most 'proud' of representing her constituents in the Suffolk Coastal ward.

READ MORE: Suffolk campaigners 'joy' at Therese Coffey's resignation

She said: "While there is more I could write about what I am proud of having achieved in government, I have always been most proud of representing my constituents of Suffolk Coastal and acting on local issues."

At the meeting on Friday (November 17) she told campaigners gathered at the Fromus community centre in Saxmundham that she had been 'unleashed' to support their efforts.

The public meeting was held by action group Suffolk Energy Action Solutions (SEAS) to discuss plans to bring cables from the offshore wind farms East Anglia ONE and East Anglia TWO ashore, with associated infrastructure being developed which campaigners fear will harm the countryside.

READ MORE: Saxmundham news

With regard to the meeting, Dr Coffey said: “I’ve consistently been working with SEAS and Substation Action Save East Suffolk (another campaign group) to raise concerns about the impact of excessive energy infrastructure on the Suffolk coast and was pleased to be their keynote speaker at the public meeting on Friday. 

"It is my strong view that onshore connections should be placed on brownfield land much further down the coast at Bradwell.

"Especially as East Suffolk will already be hosting the new Sizewell C nuclear power station." 

She mentioned other energy projects that were using offshore grids for wind farm cables and proposed this method for the Suffolk schemes. 

She added: "I will continue my campaign to try and make that happen by continuing to engage with the secretary of state and the energy minister both individually and through the Offshore Electricity Grid Task Force that I helped set up with other East Anglian MPs - and as I’m not now in government, feel unleashed to accelerate this.”

READ MORE: Suffolk MP Thérèse Coffey resigns as Environment Secretary

Dr Coffey also used her first back bench appearance in the House of Commons since her resignation to call for a debate about the impact of energy infrastructure on the east Suffolk coast.

She said: "My constituents in Suffolk Coastal feel a lot of the onshore infrastructure is being proposed in unsuitable places when further down the coast at Bradwell in Essex there is an ideal brownfield site to accommodate it."

READ MORE: Suffolk news