From the 1 st February, members of the public are being given an opportunity to view and comment on the latest plans for the proposed wind park off the Dorset coast.
Navitus Bay Development Limited (Navitus Bay) has said throughout that it is committed to hearing the views of the local community and so far has talked to over 2,000 members of the public during its two previous phases of consultation. As a result of the feedback received, it recently announced plans to move the development further out to sea and make it smaller in scale.
Phase Three of Navitus Bay’s comprehensive public consultation programme will start on the 1 st February and run until April 5th. As part of this process, a series of public exhibitions will be hosted in locations across Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, following those held in November 2011 and March 2012. Members of the project team will be available to talk through the plans and answer any questions that people might have.
Mike Unsworth, Project Director for Navitus Bay Development Limited , said:
“Navitus Bay takes its engagement with local communities extremely seriously and is committed to using feedback received from the community to help shape the proposals. As a direct result of discussions with statutory consultees and local communities, we have reduced the size of the wind park and moved it further out to sea and are now looking forward to discussing the latest detailed plans.
“The exhibitions in February are just one of the ways that we hope to work together with the local community. We are also launching a new and interactive project website in February where people can access all the latest news and proposals, leave feedback and ask questions. Navitus Bay has always said that no decisions will be made without comprehensive consultation with all interested parties so we would encourage as many people as possible to take part in the process and give us their views.”
Phase Three of Navitus Bay’s consultation will provide additional details on the changes to the project announced in December, along with visualisations of how the wind park could look from the coast. It will also include an interactive 3D model, enabling members of the public to view the wind park from any location of their choosing. Consultation documents will be available to collect at the public exhibitions and will also be available for collection from public libraries for the duration of the consultation period.
It will be the first opportunity for members of the public to view the proposed onshore underground cable route, which will transfer the electricity generated offshore in to the national network. In a typical year, based on an approximate maximum installed capacity of 1,100MW, the scheme could generate enough electricity for the domestic needs of the equivalent of around 790,000 average UK households and could offset approximately 1,150,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.
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Press release, January 11, 2013; Image: navitusbaywindpark