For all the green
lobby's whinging over the cancellation of Navitus Bay there is
something we all need to be crystal clear about:
Navitus Bay Offshore
Wind Park was recommended for rejection by the quasi-judicial
Independent Planning Authority. Not the government.
The Planning Authority
were influenced by objections from UNESCO, English Heritage, the
local mainland councils and thousands upon thousands of local people
who took the trouble to write in and object.
The government merely
rubber-stamped the planning authorities decision.
Even EDF recognised
this when yesterday they abandoned the last avenue for appeal – a
Judicial revue.
Why did they abandon
it?
Because they knew they
would lose hands down. The Planning Authority decision was rock
solid.
Even so Amber Rudd is
getting it in the neck from the Green lobby for announcing the final
veto. One can only assume that the Greens think the government should
over-rule independent bodies if they arrive at decisions the Greens
do not like.
The Greens never have
been too keen on democracy and the rule of law – unless it has been
in their favour.
Sadly though, for every offshore wind complex that is rejected there will be ten approvals.
These schemes will be
equally as costly and useless as Navitus. But the coastlines they
ruin just will be a little more ordinary than the Jurassic coast. A little more expendable. While their fatuous extravagance will be funded by the ever growing army
of those in fuel poverty.
The appalling waste
that is off-shore wind will go on.
