‘David and Goliath battle’ – campaigners bid to mount White Cross legal challenge

Campaigners have launched a new £50,000 fundraising appeal for a legal challenge to fight the controversial decision to approve the White Cross plans for underground wind farm cables at Saunton Sands.

Community forum Love Braunton announced on Saturday (July 5) it and Save Our Sands (SOS) would be continuing the fight by relaunching its crowd funding campaign to challenge the legality of the North Devon Council planning committee decision made on May 7.

The cable route will go under Saunton Sands near the beach entrance, under the car park and then through a host of protected landscapes, connecting to the national grid at East Yelland, where a new substation will be built.

Despite almost 2,000 objections and a petition of almost 4,000 against, the plans for the cables – which will bring ashore power from a floating platform of five to eight wind turbines some 30 miles offshore – it was passed by councillors by 10 votes to two.

Before the planning meeting Love Braunton and SOS raised £10,000 in just six days via a CrowdJustice campaign to secure legal representation to take to the meeting.

Now they have relaunched the online campaign in a ‘David and Goliath’ battle to try and turn the tide.

While those opposing the scheme say they have no objection to the wind farm itself, they say there are far better locations to bring the cable ashore and there are fears the work will have a massive environmental impact.

This is in addition to the effects on local tourism, Saunton as a world-renowned surfing spot and the disruption during the two years the work will take.

Speaking of the new legal challenge, Sue Prosper of Love Braunton said: “This is a David and Goliath battle but one worth fighting.

“We don’t have the same resources as the developers but what we do have is a deep commitment to protecting our natural environment, local economy and community.

“We want to protect what we love.

“The crowdfunding page is now live with an initial £50k target to fund Love Braunton’s legal challenge. Please give what you can at https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/save-our-sands .”

White Cross has previously said the turbines would power up to 135,000 homes and it had undertaken a range of rigorous environmental assessment and would have measures in place to mitigate the effects of the work.

It will use ‘trenchless’ techniques to bury the cables and believes there will be no impact to the environment once the work is complete.