The final statutory consultation phase for Dogger Bank Creyke Beck is complete and feedback from it has already been included into the development proposals.
Almost 300 people attended one of six public consultation events held along the proposed cable route of the 2.4 gigawatt (GW) offshore wind development located 131 kilometres (81 miles) off the Yorkshire coast. Seventy five per cent of those who filled in exit questionnaires were supportive of the plans presented at the events.
Dogger Bank Creyke Beck comprises two separate wind farms, each with up to 300 turbines of between 4 megawatt (MW) and 10MW, around 950 kilometres (590 miles) of inter-array cabling, up to four offshore substations, 32 kilometres of onshore cabling and two new converter stations near to the grid connection at the existing Creyke Beck substation.
In addition to feedback received from the public events, written responses to the consultation, with input on topics from coastal erosion, construction traffic and tourism to birds and employment opportunities, have been sent directly to Forewind from statutory bodies, councils and other stakeholders.
Forewind General Manager, Lee Clarke said that all the responses will be carefully reviewed and comments considered and incorporated as possible.
“We have had feedback from more than 100 stakeholders on a wide range of issues and will spend the next three months finalising our development consent order application documents, including the full Environmental Statement, before submission to the Planning Inspectorate,” Dr Clarke said.
“Already we have decided, following discussions with landowners in the East Riding of Yorkshire, to remove an alternative cable route option which would have passed through Woodmansey and close to a number of residential properties.
“The feedback we had from landowners and agents on this alternative, which was proposed to avoid Figham Common, an area of common land near Beverley, has prompted us to return to the original cable route option.”
Consultation is a key part of Forewind’s development activity and this latest phase for Dogger Bank Creyke Beck, as well as ongoing efforts to incorporate stakeholder responses, is part of the organisation’s aim to incorporate feedback early in the planning phase when it is still feasible to make changes.
The development consent application for Dogger Bank Creyke Beck is due to be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for examination by the end of summer and construction would start in 2016 at the earliest.
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Press release, June 24, 2013; Image: Forewind