A decision letter issued today said that Amber Rudd had refused development consent for the Navitus Bay Wind Park, which would have comprised up to 194 wind turbines with an installed capacity of up to 970MW. The refusal was in line with a recommendation from the Planning Inspectorate.
The letter said that the developer behind the scheme, Navitus Bay Development Limited, had submitted a Turbine Area Mitigation Option (TAMO) alongside the main application which proposed a reduced number of turbines.
But the letter said Rudd had rejected this option as well.
It said that Rudd noted the Planning Inspectorate's conclusion that the scale and location of the project "would affect important special qualities of the areas of outstanding natural beauty over a widespread area of coastline and that this carried significant weight against the grant of consent for the project in both application development and TAMO formats".
Rudd found that the scheme would have a "significant adverse impact on the perception of viewers" standing on the coast, the decision letter added.
With relation to the Dorset Coast UNESCO World Heritage Site, the letter said that the Planning Inspectorate noted there was "a risk" that, if the development was approved, "the site would be presented and transmitted to generations in a form significantly different from what was there at the time of inscription until today".
The letter said that Rudd agreed that there was a "possibility of significant adverse impacts on use and enjoyment of the world heritage site from either the application development or the TAMO".
On design issues, the letter said that Rudd found that the application "would not contribute to the quality of the area but would cause significant harm to it".
Overall, the decision letter said that the secretary of state accepted the need for "development of the kind represented by the application development and the TAMO is in accordance with the policy set out in the relevant national policy statements".
But she concluded that, "in this case, the potential impacts … are of such a scale that they outweigh the policy imperatives set out in those statements".
