by Saunton Sands is used to bearing the brunt of the Atlantic Ocean, but it is a net zero wind farm that is threatening to bring a storm to the Devon beauty spot.
Developers want to excavate and drill into parts of the historic landscape, favored by Hollywood filmmakers, celebrities and hundreds of thousands of tourists, to connect electrical cables to new offshore wind turbines.
Villagers are rebelling against the plans, which they say spell an environmental “disaster” for one of Britain’s best coastal destinations.
The dispute captures a growing sentiment in conservative cores that crusades against climate change risk doing more harm than good.
Adjacent to the sprawling three-mile Saunton Sands surf beach, where American troops trained in 1944 for the D-Day landings, the cables construction site would encompass a world-class golf course, a nature reserve and a designated area of exceptional natural value. beauty.
The plan, called White Cross, is among a handful of pilot projects for floating marine turbines using westerly winds in the Celtic Sea, which experts say is paving the way for a “new frontier” in renewable energy production in Britain.
According to White Cross, a joint venture between Japanese company Flotation Energy, led by Liberal Democrat Lord Stephen, and Spain’s Cobra, the cable route is essential because the wind farm, which would be the size of 7,000 football fields, It is located 32 miles from the coast. , would help “reach net zero by 2050.”
Royal Mail worker Helen Cooper is helping to lead the fight to stop the route. “With net zero, it’s about the ‘how’, not the ‘what’ – we’re the classic example of someone who’s just being run over,” the 59-year-old told The Telegraph in Braunton, a quaint nearby town dotted of independent shops that will be affected by the passage of 92 heavy vehicles that work on the project each day.
“We are a middle-class audience and the White Cross could have taken us with them, but instead the consultation seems like a box-ticking exercise and people were misled.”
Mrs Cooper runs Save Our Sands, a group which supports the wind farm but wants the cables to be taken elsewhere, along with medical doctor Finola O’Neill, 52, and retired HMRC official Ruth McDonough .
The beach, considered one of the best in Britain, has provided the backdrop for the Tom Cruise film The Edge of Tomorrow, Robbie Williams’ Angels music video and the album cover for Pink Floyd’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason . Around 40 per cent of the popular Saunton car park would be closed for cable works.
“This will be a disaster for the local community – many local shops rely on their summer trade and Braunton already has terrible traffic,” said McDonough, 67. “This is a cavalier approach to local businesses which we will all suffer as a result – in fact I am worried some will not survive.”
The 50m-wide underground cable would touch down in ditches at Saunton Sands before crossing under several greens at Saunton Golf Club, whose two championship courses are among the top 100 in the country, including the historic 18th green. It would then cross the Braunton marshes, floodplains and the Taw Torridge estuary, where it would connect with National Grid at the East Yelland substation.
White Cross plans to build 12 building complexes and a four-mile access road through the area, one of seven Unesco biosphere reserves in the UK. The company has been accused of ruling out less damaging cable routes, such as those around the estuary or connecting to a planned oil pipeline from Morocco just offshore, for cost reasons.
North Devon Council will decide on the planning application next month, with ground works to take place between 2025 and 2027 if approved. The Crown Estate granted the rights to the offshore wind farm in 2021.
Selaine Saxby, Conservative MP for North Devon, accused White Cross of “taking advantage of the planning system” by making the wind farm sized at 100 megawatts, meaning it will be decided locally rather than nationally. “It is very disappointing that the White Cross project has made a decision on its chosen cable corridor without proper consultation and is now trying to impose its choice on the local community,” she said.
“Having championed floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea since my election, and the need for developers to work with communities to make these vital projects a reality, I have been clear that they should cause no more harm to the environment than we are.” trying to protect.”
Almost 500 objections
Natural England and the Environment Agency have lodged hundreds of pages of concerns about the project, while almost 500 locals have lodged objections to the planning application.
It is the latest net zero battle to break out. Earlier this month, a government report warned that 300 towns and villages in rural England and Wales could be affected by thousands of pylons needed to expand the National Grid and meet net zero emissions targets. And under Labour’s plans to reach net zero, leader Sir Keir Starmer has said neighborhoods would not be able to veto the construction of onshore wind farms.
One of the main landowners affected by White Cross would be Hector Christie, a sustainability campaigner who owns large tracts of rural land and a stately home in Tapeley Park. A spokesperson for Christie Estate said: “While the estate supports renewable energy, it shares many of the concerns about the project expressed during the planning process by Braunton residents, including those of businesses in the wider community for whom Saunton Beach is a key tourist attraction.”
White Cross said in a previous statement: “More than 20 different overland cable routes have been assessed along a significant length of the north Devon coast… The selected cable route avoids major residential areas and mitigates potential impacts in the Braunton Burrows Special Area of Conservation (SAC) by using a trenchless technique to install the cable underground without disturbing the surface. “The remainder of the route will travel outside the SAC and other identified sites of special scientific interest towards the Taw Estuary.”
North Devon Council said it will “balance the benefits and impacts” and consider all materials.
Flotation Energy, which operates 13 gigawatts of offshore wind farms in the UK and around the world, and Cobra have been contacted for comment.
