Saunton Sands is used to bearing the brunt of the Atlantic Ocean, but it’s a net-zero wind farm that threatens to unleash a storm on Devon’s beauty spot.
Developers want to dig up and pierce 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 protesting against the plans, which they say spells an environmental disaster for one of Britain’s most beautiful coastal destinations.
The row reflects a growing feeling in conservative heartlands that crusades against climate change risk doing more harm than good.
In addition to the expansive three-mile surf beach at Saunton Sands, where US troops trained for the D-Day landings in 1944, a construction site for the cables would include a world-class golf course, a nature reserve and a designated area of exceptional natural landscapes. beauty.
The plan, called White Cross, is part of a handful of pilots for floating offshore turbines using westerly winds in the Celtic Sea, which experts say will pave the way for a “new frontier” in UK renewable energy production energy.
According to White Cross, a joint venture between Japanese company Flotation Energy, led by Liberal Democrat peer Lord Stephen, and Spanish firm Cobra, the cable route is essential because the wind farm, which would be the size of 7,000 football pitches, is located 52 miles from the coast, would help “reach net zero by 2050.”
Helen Cooper, a Royal Mail employee, is leading the fight to stop the route. “With net zero it’s the ‘how’ and not the ‘what’ – we’re the classic example of just getting driven through,” the 59-year-old told The Telegraph in Braunton, a nearby quaint village dotted with independent shops that would do. are plagued by the 92 trucks working on the project every day.
“We are a middle-class audience and the White Cross could have taken us with them, but instead the consultation seems like a checklist and people have been fooled.”
Ms Cooper leads Save Our Sands, a group that supports the wind farm but wants the cables taken elsewhere, along with GP Dr. Finola O’Neill, 52, and retired HMRC official Ruth McDonough.
The beach, which is among the best in Britain, has served as the backdrop for the Tom Cruise film The Edge of Tomorrow, the music video for Robbie Williams’ Angels and the album cover for Pink Floyd’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason. Around 40 per cent of Saunton’s popular car park is said to be closed due to cable work.
“This will be a disaster for the local community – many local shops rely on their summer trade and Braunton already has terrible traffic,” said Ms McDonough, 67. “This is a cavalier approach to local businesses that will affect us all. In fact, I’m afraid some won’t survive.”
The 50 meter wide underground cable would come ashore in trenches at Saunton Sands before passing under several greens at Saunton Gold Club, whose two championship courses are ranked in 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 to the National Grid at East Yelland substation.
White Cross plans to build 12 building complexes and a four-mile access road through the area, one of only seven UNESCO biosphere reserves in Britain. The company is accused of ignoring less damaging cable routes for cost reasons, such as along the estuary or the connection to a planned pipeline from Morocco a short distance along the coast.
North Devon Council will decide on the planning application next month, with onshore work due to take place between 2025 and 2027 if approved. The rights for the offshore wind farm were granted by The Crown Estate in 2021.
Selaine Saxby, the Conservative MP for North Devon, has accused the White Cross of “abusing the planning system” by making the wind farm 100 megawatts, meaning this will be decided at local rather than national level. “It is very disappointing that the White Cross project has made a decision on their chosen cable corridor without adequate consultation and is now trying to impose their 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 bring these vital projects to fruition, I have made it clear that they will not do more harm to the environment than we are trying to cause. to protect.”
Nearly 500 objections
Natural England and the Environment Agency have submitted hundreds of pages of concerns about the project, while almost 500 local residents have raised objections to the planning application.
It’s the latest net-zero battle flaring up. Earlier this month, a government report warned that 300 towns and villages in rural England and Wales could be in sight of thousands of electricity pylons needed to expand the National Grid to meet net zero targets. And under Labour’s plans to reach net zero, leader Sir Keir Starmer has said neighborhoods cannot veto the building of onshore wind farms.
One of the major landowners affected by the White Cross is believed to be Hector Christie, a sustainability advocate who owns parts of the countryside and the stately home of Tapeley Park. A spokesperson for the Christie Estate said: “Whilst the estate is a supporter of renewable energy, it shares many of the concerns about the project raised during the planning process by the residents of Braunton, including those from businesses in the wider community for whom Saunton Beach is a major tourist attraction.”
White Cross said in an earlier statement: “More than 20 different onshore cable routes have been assessed along a significant length of the North Devon coast… The selected cable route avoids key residential areas and mitigates potential impacts on 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 be beyond the SAC and other identified sites of special scientific interest to 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 Britain and around the world, and Cobra have been contacted for comment.