Extracts from Commons end of day adjournment debate on Offshore Wind Substations: East of England - Mar 11
Tuesday, 12 March 2019 08:29
George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con):...A few years later, in 2013,
it became clear that the Vanguard and the Boreas wind farm
applications were coming, and that they would need another
substation. That was my first surprise, because I felt that the
first substation would have been big enough for all those wind
farms. However, it turns out that each wind farm will have one. The
process of consultation, led by Vattenfall, has led to
increasing levels of concern not just for me but for the...Request free trial
(Mid Norfolk)
(Con):...A few years later, in 2013, it became clear that
the Vanguard and the Boreas wind farm applications were coming, and
that they would need another substation. That was my first
surprise, because I felt that the first substation would have been
big enough for all those wind farms. However, it turns out that
each wind farm will have one. The process of consultation, led
by Vattenfall, has led to increasing levels of
concern not just for me but for the local community. Throughout all
the consultation phases, no one is actually listening to the voices
of the people on the ground. We have ended up with this enormous
structure placed on top of the hill, visible to five villages and
raising all sorts of environmental impacts, including light
pollution and impact on the landscape. This has happened in the
teeth of a howl from the local community. They do not mind having a
substation, but could it not have been put out of sight in the
low-lying land next to the previous substation? You could not have
made this up...
The Minister for Energy and Clean Growth (Claire
Perry):...We have to be clear that the two things to which
my hon. Friend alluded, community involvement in planning and the
integration of connection infrastructure, will be adequately
addressed. Most of the proposed applications in Suffolk and Norfolk
are at the pre-application stage, but the applications for Hornsea
Project Three and Norfolk Vanguard are currently undergoing
examination, and I understand my hon. Friend has been eloquent in
his written and oral representations to the examiners on those
projects...
To read the whole debate, CLICK
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