Reactions to the wind farms along the Dorset Coast

So we are lucky enough to live in such a beautiful place along the coast of England, taking in some breathtaking views on a daily basis. Could our refusal to build a wind farm to help global warming, due to it being "an eye sore", cause damaging effects to the charming seaside resorts in Dorset?

Yesterday finally produced a decision for the proposal of a wind farm along the south coast after a long fight. The Navitus Bay wind farm plans were rejected after years of controversial conversations  to place 121 wind turbines 9 miles away from Swanage as well as 13 miles away from Bournemouth and Poole. Many have stated how delighted they are that the government have made the right decision, but is this just a selfish act that could cause our children for many generations to come, to not have the same pleasure in enjoying the charm of Dorset's coastline as we do today?

The proposals aimed to please by claiming the results from their research showed that the wind turbines could power up to 700,000 homes in a year resulting in us decreasing our reliability on imported fuels that we have become accustomed to. They also estimated that by fulfilling these plans we would reduce our CO2 emissions by up to 1,290,000 tonnes.Project director at navitus bay, Mr Stuart Grant, has obviously stated his disappointment in the decision that was made, nevertheless has thanked all the communities that have supported the plans from the beginning and plans to discuss options available to their supporting stakeholders going forward. 

However, this was not enough to sway the opinions of most to agree to the plans. Mr Grey, UKIP candidate for christchurch said: "It's going to decimate our beautiful countryside. They are going to build a 40m-wide trench from where it comes into land at Mudeford right up to Mannington."

Many agreed with Mr Grey's views resulting in their opinions continuing the argument, that the UK's only World Heritage site should remain natural and the implementation of this wind farm could have damaging effects on the tourism industry and cost up to 5,000 jobs. 

On the other hand Navitus Bay proposed that the plans would support a minimum of 1,700 jobs locally and 147 permanent jobs for the duration on the 25 year operational life of the project. Mr Bowkett, labour candidate for South Dorset said, "The principle of developing renewables in this part of the world is important, nor just from the climate change perspective but...delivering more jobs and better jobs for this area. When we left power in 2010, we would import 27% of the raw materials needed for power generation in this country. It's now over 40%." Also on this side of the argument Ms Slade, liberal Democrat candidate for mid Dorset and North Poole said, "The reality is that we have got to stop extracting fossil fuels from this planet."

In spite of that, Mr Hoare, Conservative candidate for North Dorset said, "I think, in the county, we are very good because we have hit our county's targets for renewables. I think that we need to have far more focus on saving energy rather than how it is generated."

For Five years this argument has been going back and forth yet the recommendation for the plans to stop has resulted in favour of against and the ultimate decision for the project to be refused. Claire Moody, Labour MEP for the South West has claimed that it is just a political move to halt the plans and that climate change is a bigger risk than many may think.

The Dorset coast is left with its elegant, natural views for the moment but could this all change after our lifetime? Hopefully the right decision has been made but we are left with the question what are the next steps to help prevent the effects we face from climate change?