UK: West Sussex County Council to Debate on Rampion OWF Plan

Major proposals for an offshore wind farm stretching across a wide area of the Sussex coastline will be put under the spotlight by a West Sussex County Council scrutiny committee.

The debate on the Rampion plan, put forward by energy giant E.ON, will be webcast because of the huge public interest in the proposal.

The meeting of the Environmental and Community Services Select Committee takes place on Friday 12 July 2013 at County Hall, Chichester.

“This is one of the biggest planning applications that Sussex has seen for many years, so given the implications, and the public interest, we felt it important that the debate should be webcast,” said County Councillor John de Mierre, chairman of the Committee.

The County Council has been invited to submit its comments on the E.ON application to the Planning Inspectorate by early August.

John said: “Our role as a scrutiny committee will be to look in detail at the proposals and advise the appropriate Cabinet Member about our views, and any concerns we might have, before the County Council’s views are formally submitted to the Inspectorate.”

The proposed Rampion Offshore Wind farm would extend from Peacehaven in the east to Worthing with up to 175 turbines.

The cables would make landfall south of the Brooklands Golf Centre between East Worthing and Lancing where they would travel under the beach, sea defences, the A259 and part of the national cycle route.

The cable route would then continue underground for around 26.4 kilometres through Adur, Worthing, Horsham, Mid Sussex, and parts of the South Downs National Park to reach a new sub-station located at Bolney.

E.ON says the cable route takes into account sensitive historic, ecological and landscape features.

The location of the wind farm has been selected, says the company, taking into account water depths, environmental constraints and shipping lanes.

The project, expected to take four years to complete, would generate enough electricity to meet the needs of 450,000 homes a year.

A report to the Committee suggests that ‘qualified support’ for the proposals could be considered, but it also expresses disappointment at E.ON’s proposals to mitigate the impact of the scheme, saying they do not go far enough.

It says: “Immediate benefits to local communities and the local environment have been overlooked and there is a missed opportunity to give greater weight to the acceptability of the scheme to local communities along the cable route and near the sub-station.”

Another reason for ‘qualified support’ is the impact on Shoreham Port, which plays an important role in the economic performance of the area, particularly in the areas along the south coast.

There are fears it may suffer economically due to the loss of fishing area to ‘exclusion zones’ around the towers, and if ships need to divert around the windfarm  it would add miles to operations making it less attractive to shipping.

Local stakeholders are also concerned at the impact of exclusion zones to be imposed during construction and afterwards. These have the potential to significantly impact upon the local fishing community in particular, but also those relying economically on diving and charter fishing.

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Press release, July 10, 2013; Image: Fugro