Rampion 2 could 'decimate' tourism in Arun

The council’s planning committee at a meeting on Wednesday, January 17, amended the proposed local impact report on the Rampion wind farm expansion, after they decided the report did not go far enough to reduce the impact on the district.

Members said council officers should look into potentially securing a new visitor centre for tourists, the impact of cable laying on the Lyminster bypass, to ‘further highlight’ the importance of tourism and job creation/apprenticeships, and include night-time construction mitigation measures.

The report will have to be sent to the planning inspectorate by February 20, with members to see the amended version at a meeting beforehand.

The offshore Rampion wind farm expansion, known as Rampion 2, is currently before the planning inspectorate for consideration in the pre-examination phase, and could see an additional 90 wind turbines constructed next to the existing 116 off the West Sussex coast if approved.

Nine out of 11 impact areas covered in the report were predicted to have a negative impact on Arun, with four to have a neutral impact, and one to have a positive impact – that being renewable energy/climate change.

Martin Lury (LDem, Bersted) said the expansion would ‘decimate’ Arun’s tourism economy during and after its construction, with Ricky Bower (Con, East Preston) endorsing this view.

Billy Blanchard-Cooper (LDem, Beach) said there were ‘numerous’ complaints of ‘continual’ noise during construction at nighttime from the first Rampion project, and ‘a lot of issues’ would be caused by construction of this expansion.