Bournemouth West MP Conor Burns has today hailed the Department of Energy & Climate Change’s decision to refuse planning consent for the proposed Navitus Bay Wind Farm. This follows the Planning Inspectorate’s recommendation that the application be rejected.
The proposal, which would have seen up to 194 200m-tall wind turbines installed 14km off the Dorset coastline, had attracted widespread opposition from local residents and their representatives. It had more objections lodged against it with the Planning Inspectorate than any other offshore wind farm to date, and a survey of local residents conducted by Conor Burns found that 87 per cent were opposed.
In their announcement, the Department of Energy & Climate Change said that planning consent had been refused because of the proposal’s adverse impacts on the Jurassic Coast World Heritage site and other Areas of Outstanding National Beauty.
Commenting on the news, Conor said: “I have said from the very beginning that the Navitus Bay proposal would be bad for Bournemouth and bad for Dorset, threatening the UK’s only natural World Heritage Site and the tourism economy which is the lifeblood of my constituency.
"I very much welcome the government’s decision to refuse planning consent, which vindicates my own long-standing opposition to the proposal, as well as that of many of my constituents. I have spoken in Parliament on six occasions on this subject, lobbied the Secretary of State in their own Department and put the case directly to the Prime Minister in No. 10. I am delighted that our case has prevailed.
"While others were prepared to countenance this scheme, I opposed it from the very start. The developer should take note that we will fight any appeal with equal resolve. This scheme must now be at an end and the threat to our area removed forever.”