Campaigners Fight Navitus Bay Plans

Opponents of the Navitus Bay offshore wind project claim that the project’s developers have given “incomplete, unclear and even misleading information” about the offshore wind farm during the consultation, The Telegraph writes.

An application for Navitus Bay, a joint development of Eneco Wind UK Ltd (Eneco) and EDF Energy Renewables, was submitted last week. However, those opposing the project have called the Planning Inspectorate via a letter to discard the application, because the proposed offshore wind farm would harm local tourism and economy. They claim that the wind farm would be much more visible from the coast than the developers presented, and that its socio-economic impact was vaguely presented.

Campaigners, led by Challenge Navitus group, said that Navitus Bay could threaten the Jurassic Coast, which has a status of UNESCO World Heritage site.

“The consultation process that we undertook was certainly not flawed. We followed the directions of PINS (the Planning Inspectorate) throughout and, in fact, have gone above and beyond by holding a fourth round of public consultation and four rounds of additional drop-in surgeries. We wanted to give local residents as many opportunities as possible to find out more about the project,” Daily Echo quotes Stuart Grant, Senior Project Manager at Navitus Bay, as saying.

The Planning Inspectorate has until May 8 to decide whether to accept the application for examination.

Offshore WIND Staff, April 15, 2014; Image: Navitus Bay