Wind News

Monday 19 October 2009

Councillor Jones has called on the government to support Newhaven town during construction of a proposed offshore wind farm on Hastings Bank

The leader of East Sussex county council has written to business secretary Lord Mandelson urging him to help ensure that the port of Newhaven benefits economically from the development of a proposed offshore wind farm on Hastings Bank - between Brighton and Newhaven.

In September 2008, the Crown Estate invited offshore wind energy developers to bid for leases in nine areas around the British coast as part of Round Three of the UK's offshore wind programme (See this NewEnergyFocus story). Hastings Bank was identified as one of the areas and the Crown Estate is set to decide on the award of a licence for an offshore wind farm later this year.

However, councillor Peter Jones wants to ensure that the development benefits Newhaven and its ferry service and has called on central government to support the town by making sure the Crown Estate insists ‘that the company selected to develop the wind farm is required to use Newhaven Port for assembly and maintenance.'

In his letter to Lord Mandelson, sent last Wednesday (October 14) Councillor Jones said: "This licence presents a major opportunity to support the economic development of East Sussex and Newhaven in particular. Newhaven is a deprived port town which has suffered for many years and has been hit hard by the recession.

"In reaching a decision, the Crown Estate can insist that the company selected to develop the offshore wind farm is required to use Newhaven Port for assembly and maintenance. I know that SEEDA is doing all it can to support Newhaven but we also need a commitment from central Government on this issue," he added.

Councillor Jones also noted that the Hastings Bank scheme should not go the same way as the London Array wind farm - claiming that none of the economic development benefits for that project were staying in the UK.

The London Array wind farm is due to be built in the outer Thames Estuary in early 2011.

Bids

One of the bids for Hastings Bank has come from German wind developer WPD, who announced in June this year that it had submitted a bid to develop a 1.35GW project in the zone designated for offshore wind development off the coast of Sussex, near Hastings (see this NewEnergyFocus story).