Cabling for a wind farm off North Norfolk has prompted objections from farmers and villagers.

Dudgeon wind farm cable deferred by North Norfolk planners

Richard Batson Friday, July 15, 2011
6:00 AM

A decision over an underground power cable connecting an offshore windfarm to a planned sub-station in the centre of Norfolk has been deferred.

Protestors including farmers and parish councils said the route would cut a scar through the countryside damaging scenery, farmland soil and hedgerows.

But Dudgeon windfarm developers Warwick said it would have no impact once it was built and would provide enough electricity to power every house in the county.

More than 27km of the 45km cable passes through 15 parishes in North Norfolk after coming ashore at Weybourne. It will be connected to an offshore farm with up to 168 turbines, which is awaiting government approval, and Warwick is poised to apply for second phase next door which would double its size.

At the other end is a sub-station at Little Dunham which was refused by Breckland planners, but with an appeal result due any day.

The cable would be sunk using trenches and horizontal drilling under some sensitive areas within a working corridor 40m wide - with scope to add in the second phase later.

Some parishes and farmers along the route have objected, North Norfolk District Council’s development committee heard.

David Bolton representing Kelling, Salthouse, Thursford and Stibbard said their planning barrister felt the cable would cut a swathe through the heritage coast, a cherished Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty landscape, and working farmland, removing parts of 151 hedgerows and should be refused.

Farmer Andy Boesen from Great Ryburgh said it would affect 20 per cent or his 400 acre arable farm for four or five years which would be devastating.

Project director Mark Petterson said Dudgeon was a “project for Norfolk and Great Britain” and only a “vocal few” out of 50 farmers along the route had objected, while there was support from the Environment Agency and Campaign to Protect Rural England.

Techniques were similar to the cabling done for the Sheringham Shoal windfarm, after which “crops are happily growing again less then a year after installation.”

Asked why the cable had to be taken so far inland to Little Dunham, he said it was because other national gird connection points were already at capacity.

Earlier in the day councillors toured the cable route. Michael Baker said the visit revealed the “enormity of the systematic rape of the countryside” in pursuance of the project, and wanted more information about the impact on the two biggest local industries tourism and farming.

Members were at one stage toying with refusing the scheme, but were warned they would need strong expert evidence to back their decision, and the council’s own officials and experts were recommending approval.

The committee voted 10-0 with two abstentions to defer the plan until the outcome of the Little Dunham sub station appeal was known and to resolve issues such as the short-term impact on farming and tourism, whether Warwick would re-route around the badly-affected Great Ryburgh farm, and look at underground drilling instead of trenching at the Stiffkey and Wensum Rivers, and consider only doing the first phase.

8 comments

No doubt local voices will be ignored just like the Sheringham windfarm. There local consultation consited of having a ring round local businesses after the project was in full swing!!! Democracy in this country is dead!!

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wod

Monday, July 18, 2011
No doubt local voices will be ignored just like the Sheringham windfarm and a good example of what

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wod

Monday, July 18, 2011
Lets all bury our heads in the sand and pretend that our oil and gas supplies are safe and secure and that Britain can remain immune from the effects of price rises due to having to compete against the emerging economies of India and China. Nuclear power remains prohibitively expensive and still relies on the importation of uranium. As the Nuclear power industry will rely on private investment does anyone think that the backers of such schemes won't expect a considerable return on their investment? No one can pretend that wind power is the answer to our energy needs. However, it does and will play a part and without it we as a country will remain at the mercy of events that we cannot control.

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Douglas McCoy

Friday, July 15, 2011
If anyone hasn't noticed energy prices are rising at a level where many British families and particularly pensioners are now already in or will soon be facing 'fuel poverty'. Most of our energy needs are supplied by sources outside the UK and therefore at the mercy of global supply and demand. As a country we cannot influence or control these forces and remain very vulnerable to outside factors beyond our control. Our energy needs as a nation are not under our control and are certainly not secure. The government wants to see an increase in the number of nuclear power plants to provide for some of our nations future energy needs but as we all know isn't in a position to pay for their construction. Wind farms are not and can never be the answer to this country's energy needs but they give us any opportunity to secure some of it cleanly and safely. Putting our heads in the sand and arguing about the environmental impact of the construction of wind farms is laudable if this country wasn't in such a precarious position. It seems to me therefore that those who protest so loudly about them will be happy for the lights to be turned out should unforeseen events affect our current oil and gas supplies?

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Douglas McCoy

Friday, July 15, 2011
If anyone hasn't noticed energy prices are rising at a level where many British families and particularly pensioners are now already in or will soon be facing 'fuel poverty'. Most of our energy needs are supplied by sources outside the UK and therefore at the mercy of global supply and demand. As a country we cannot influence or control these forces and remain very vulnerable to outside factors beyond our control. Our energy needs as a nation are not under our control and are certainly not secure. The government wants to see an increase in the number of nuclear power plants to provide for some of our nations future energy needs but as we all know isn't in a position to pay for their construction. Wind farms are not and can never be the answer to this country's energy needs but they give us any opportunity to secure some of it cleanly and safely. Putting our heads in the sand and arguing about the environmental impact of the construction of wind farms is laudable if this country wasn't in such a precarious position. It seems to me therefore that those who protest so loudly about them will be happy for the lights to be turned out should unforeseen events affect our current oil and gas supplies?

Report this comment

Douglas McCoy

Friday, July 15, 2011
If anyone hasn't noticed energy prices are rising at a level where many British families and particularly pensioners are now already in or will soon be facing 'fuel poverty'. Most of our energy needs are supplied by sources outside the UK and therefore at the mercy of global supply and demand. As a country we cannot influence or control these forces and remain very vulnerable to outside factors beyond our control. Our energy needs as a nation are not under our control and are certainly not secure. The government wants to see an increase in the number of nuclear power plants to provide for some of our nations future energy needs but as we all know isn't in a position to pay for their construction. Wind farms are not and can never be the answer to this country's energy needs but they give us any opportunity to secure some of it cleanly and safely. Putting our heads in the sand and arguing about the environmental impact of the construction of wind farms is laudable if this country wasn't in such a precarious position. It seems to me therefore that those who protest so loudly about them will be happy for the lights to be turned out should unforeseen events affect our current oil and gas supplies?

Report this comment

Douglas McCoy

Friday, July 15, 2011
If anyone hasn't noticed energy prices are rising at a level where many British families and particularly pensioners are now already in or will soon be facing 'fuel poverty'. Most of our energy needs are supplied by sources outside the UK and therefore at the mercy of global supply and demand. As a country we cannot influence or control these forces and remain very vulnerable to outside factors beyond our control. Our energy needs as a nation are not under our control and are certainly not secure. The government wants to see an increase in the number of nuclear power plants to provide for some of our nations future energy needs but as we all know isn't in a position to pay for their construction. Wind farms are not and can never be the answer to this country's energy needs but they give us any opportunity to secure some of it cleanly and safely. Putting our heads in the sand and arguing about the environmental impact of the construction of wind farms is laudable if this country wasn't in such a precarious position. It seems to me therefore that those who protest so loudly about them will be happy for the lights to be turned out should unforeseen events affect our current oil and gas supplies?

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Douglas McCoy

Friday, July 15, 2011
When the two major gas pipelines passed across Norfolk in the late sixtiesearly seventies there were huge excavations, tree felling and brush clearances. In places it is still easy to see where they passed and some fields they crossed over took a long time for the disturbed soil to crop in the same way. One assumes compensation was paid, but the owners of the land crossed have blighted land for as long as the pipelines exist-any potential development must have exclusion areas around the pipleines, not a laughing matter if it means the difference between agricultural use and selling for housing. Since Warwick is a business if their scheme is approved ,they should be made to pay and pay so that those they trample over to make their profits from so called green energy do not have their lives blighted and suffer financially.

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Daisy Roots

Friday, July 15, 2011