Offshore windfarm cables will land at Devon village

Fears about harm to landscape and tourism

Onshore cabling work for a wind farm off the North Devon coast 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 which involves burying cables across protected environments of international significance as part of the onshore electrical infrastructure.

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

Saunton Sands is one of the south west’s most popular beaches, claiming some of the country’s best surf, but residents and business owners spoke of the impact that closing 40 per cent of the beach car park for cabling work for a year or more would have on tourism, Braunton’s main industry.

And they said they were “appalled” that no risk assessment had been done given that there could be up to 90 HGV movements per day through the village’s narrow roads and near to Caen Primary School, where the air quality is already poor due to traffic pollution.

The 100MW project is a joint venture between the energy company and Cobra and will test new technology in the Celtic Sea. The eight turbines will be sited 50km off the coast with the onshore infrastructure running from Saunton Sands car park to the substation at East Yelland.

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.

Braunton Parish Council invited villagers to their meeting on Tuesday to ask questions of the applicants because of the strength of feeling in the community.

Many 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.

Local resident Ruth Macdonald said: “ White Cross’ handling of this chaotic consultation process gives little confidence that 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 that is actually 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” 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 and there was a real safety risk.

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

“If you draw a straight line and boar underneath the sediment…forget the sand, go deeper and once you go below the seabed you are clear of everything.

“Speak to Elon Musk, he has a boring company that has just dug a tunnel under Las Vegas. Get a quote from him and put the cable under the sea directly where it needs to go. You will not need mitigation, we won’t even know it is going on.”

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

She said energy provided by the wind farm 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.

Braunton parish councillors opposed the scheme on policies in their new neighbourhood plan relating to the protection of the environment, biodiversity and the effect of traffic. The final decision will lay with North Devon Council who will discuss the plan later this year or early next year.

Chair of the parish council Cllr 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.