NORTH West Norfolk MP Henry Bellingham is calling for compensation to be paid to fishermen in the area if another massive offshore wind farm goes ahead off The Wash.
Lynn shellfish company director John Williamson claims local fishermen have not received a penny in compensation since the present Lynn and Inner Dowsing wind farms, which can be seen off Hunstanton, were created.
Energy firm Centrica, which owns
those wind farms, is planning a third, named Lincs, to be built due east of the existing structures, which already form the world’s biggest offshore wind farm development.
If it gains final approval, Lincs will be capable of supplying about 170,000 customers with the power generated being fed into an extension to the existing National Grid substation at Walpole St Andrew.
On Thursday night, Mr Bellingham told the Commons that Centrica’s plans for the Lincs wind farm could have “important ramifications for fisheries”.
He said the firm had given a commitment to pay compensation but warned some parts of the Norfolk shell fishery could be out of bounds for years to come.
During a fisheries debate, he said there were worries about the time it would take to lay cables to connect the turbines to the on-shore facilities and the lack of access fishermen would have to mussel beds during that work.
“There will, of course, be areas of The Wash and offshore Norfolk shell fishery that are going to be out of bounds for the foreseeable future, certainly for the life of these wind turbines,” he said.
Mr Bellingham said Centrica chief executive Sam Laidlaw had made it clear there would be compensation for fishermen who lose out – and such a commitment was “very important”.
He added: “What we now need are those talks to continue and for a conclusion to be reached so fishermen in my constituency know exactly where they stand.”
Mr Williamson, a director of Lynn Shellfish, which runs 12 boats from the town, said the current wind farms off Skegness were on “very rich mussel grounds” that fishermen could no longer access.
“I have attended lots of talks and heard lots of promises, but we haven’t seen a penny in compensation,” he said.
Making trenches for cables and pipes, and removing sand, gravel and aggregates for beach enhancement schemes, created material in suspension that drifted with the tides and winds and settled on immature shellfish beds over a wide area, “and that’s destroying us”, he said.
“We haven’t got a choice, that’s our fishing, our heritage and living, but they can put these windmills on land,” he pointed out.
mike.last@lynnnews.co.uk
