Responding to Navitus Bay’s local skills and supply chain fund announcement, leader of Bournemouth Borough Council, Councillor John Beesley said:
“Navitus Bay will cause ten job losses for every one that it might create.
An £8.6 million skills and supply chain engagement fund does little to allay the £6.3 billion national economic loss this deeply unpopular and flawed development is forecast to bring.
It is disappointing and critical to note that the draft s.106 agreement does not include a tourism fund to address the tourism mitigation and compensation issues raised by the resorts around Poole Bay. There remains a fundamental disagreement between Bournemouth Borough Council and EDF Energy / Eneco’s Navitus Bay as to the extent of financial impact on the tourism economy. The tourism businesses in the destination areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole and Purbeck have identified £975 million as the figure necessary to address the tourism mitigation and give a chance of replacing the forecast losses in tourism business over the 30 year life of the project.
Navitus Bay continues to ignore the fact that almost 5,000 jobs will be lost across Dorset if its offshore wind farm is developed. Its own research forecasts a 20-32% drop in visitor numbers. Changing the core appeal of the tourism offer by industrialising this beautiful coastal setting with vast, highly visible turbines will have an unprecedented and deeply damaging effect on our local economy and jobs.”
