Wind farm underground cable plan could ‘not have chosen a worse site’ in North Devon

Controversial plans to lay power cables at Saunton Sands to connect a proposed wind farm off the North Devon coast to the National Grid would ‘destroy the tourism industry, harm the landscape and risk the safety of children’, a public meeting heard this week.

Around 200 residents filled Braunton Parish Hall to ask questions about the White Cross Offshore Wind Farm application, which would involve running underground cables from Saunton Sands through to a substation at East Yelland.

The White Cross wind farm would have a capacity of up to 100MW and is a joint venture between applicant Floatation Energy and Cobra. It will test new technology in the Celtic Sea with eight turbines will be sited some 31 miles off the coast. For comparison, Fullabrook wind farm is 66MW.

North Devon MP Selaine Saxby has already expressed concerns, saying she supported offshore wind projects but felt the amount of disruption was not justified for a ‘test site’ and no one had yet been able to explain to her why this was considered the best route for the cables.

As well as the beach car park, the ‘cable corridor’ would run under parts of Braunton Burrows dunes, Saunton Sands Golf Course, agricultural fields and Crow Point car park.

In an area of outstanding natural beauty, a UNESCO world heritage site and several sites of scientific interest (SSSI), opponents said Floatation Energy ‘could not have chosen a worst site for landfall’.

There are fears closing 40 per cent of the beach car park would have a huge impact on tourism, plus people are worried about the ecological impact as well as a claimed number of up to 90 HGV lorries per day through the village’s narrow roads while work is going on.

In addition to worry over dangers to pedestrians, families and young children on the narrow placements, the lorries would run past Caen Primary School, where the air quality is already poor due to Braunton’s already heavy traffic problem.

Braunton Parish Council invited villagers to its meeting on Tuesday (October 24) to ask questions of the applicants because of the strength of feeling in the community. It is only a consultee on the application and the final decision will be made by North Devon Council as well as the Marine Management Organisation (MMO).

Floatation Energy has held three rounds of public consultations and says it will mitigate the effects of traffic and environment damage. It plans to build a new haulage road to the site, implement a traffic management plan and provide a biodiversity net gain of 10 per cent.

Many at the parish meeting criticised the communication process by the energy company, saying it had been ‘inadequate’ and alienated the people who weren’t online. They said there were still many unanswered questions giving residents little assurance that their concerns would be addressed.

Resident Ruth Macdonald said: “White Cross’s handling of this chaotic consultation process gives little confidence the project will go smoothly, but if this is given the go ahead I suspect the parish council will be powerless to have any impact on the work carried out, whether or not the proposed mitigations work or not, whether or not it damages our parish, our lives or our economy.

“Braunton relies on its bucket and spade holidays. If people can’t get in the car park, they can’t use the beach and we will lose our tourists.”

She said ‘daily snarl ups’ already hampered the village and that situation would get worse if the application went ahead.

Teachers and parents said narrow pavements, pushchairs and children and HGV vehicles did not mix.

“You can barely get a car through at 10mph at 9am, 3pm and 4pm when everyone is milling around Caen Street and the supermarket,” said one teacher.

“Just imagine how horrendous it is going to be with all the extra traffic and pollution.”

Local surfer Haydon Woods said like many people at the meeting he was a supporter of green energy but there would be ‘overwhelming support’ for the project if a ‘more favourable route closer to the estuary or up the estuary could be found’.

The company said other routes had been investigated, but were opposed by Natural England and other organisations concerned about the sensitivity of the area.

Mr Woods said cables could avoid the land and go directly where they needed to go, under the sea, to East Yelland.

Jess Breedon from Floatation Energy said concerns by residents would be addressed and suggestions put forward would be explored.

She said energy provided by the wind farm, enough to power 135,000 homes, would be distributed locally, not nationally and the community would see benefits in other ways such as the development of the cycle path, although the full detail of those benefits are not yet known.

She said more of the car park at Saunton Sands would be available in the summer months than the winter and the 92 HGV movements that had been quoted were during one month of the construction work. Generally 36 movements would be the ‘worst case scenario’.

Parish council chair, Councillor Marguerite Shapland said if the proposal did go ahead the council would not be powerless but would be ‘kicking up a stink’ because ‘that is what we do’ if things were not being done the way they should be done.

She said she couldn’t understand why a green energy company was looking to destroy an important natural environment and was totally opposed to the plan.

Paula Ferris, committee member for Coastwise North Devon, told the North Devon Gazette the group was ‘reasonably happy’ about the actual wind farm but could not support plans for the cable to come ashore at Saunton and run to Yelland.

She said: “This involves drilling and ditching through eight kilometres of precious habitats. A lot of very big kit would be involved on an already inadequate road system. 

“The knock-on impact on all who travel to and through Braunton and our vital coastal tourism would be significantly affected and the economic impact needs proper assessment. I will be advising Coastwise to support the demands for this arising from the parish meeting and for the withdrawal of the application until it has been undertaken.”

In a recent Westminster Hall debate, Selaine Saxby MP also listed several concerns over the plans, including that consultation events had been poorly advertised and there had been no offers of community involvement or recompense, such as the £1million plus provided by Fullabrook for community projects.

She said: “I very strongly believe the entire Celtic Sea FLOW (offshore wind) project should be considered as one, as a national infrastructure project, to enable proper strategic planning, and ensure we do hit our offshore wind targets and that communities are included in these decisions and recompensed appropriately for hosting infrastructure.

“I have grave concerns that councillors and our planning department do not have the knowledge or capacity to adequately assess this proposed development, I have therefore asked the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities for additional support.

“It is increasingly possible this development will undermine all the support which has been generated along this coastline for FLOW, with hundreds of objections being lodged and further meetings planned by local parishes.”

Selaine Saxby's full statement: