After the 12-week community consultation ended on May 6, E.ON has launched a further eight-week public consultation on the Rampion Offshore Wind Farm.
The company has extended the consultation period after a senior Conservative MP stated that residents should be ‘bribed’ to accept wind turbines in their areas, the Argus news portal reports.
Namely, the chairman of the Commons energy and climate change committee Tim Yeo said that the best way to get public approval was direct financial motivation. Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, Caroline Lucas, commented his statement by saying that the residents should harvest financial rewards from new proposals to generate cleaner power, mostly in terms of community ownership.
Chris Tomlinson, E.ON development manager for the project, pointed out that this is the largest consultation the company has ever undertaken in the UK.
Mr Tomlinson explained: “Having doubled this additional consultation to eight weeks to allow more detailed discussions with the public and stakeholder groups, this brings the total period of consultation to 20 weeks with the community and wider public consultation combined.”
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Offshore WIND staff, June 14, 2012; Image: E.ON