The Chamber, which is the trade association for the UK shipping industry, considers that the government has not taken into account either the safety of seafarers and passengers or the environmental costs of forcing ships to detour around the site.This wind farm will sit across the normal shipping route from Heysham to Douglas on the Isle of Man, which is also the bad weather route to Northern Ireland for other ferry services.
While the consent requires the developer to negotiate compensation with shipping companies affected, the Chamber considers that very real safety and shipping concerns have been overridden.
This could mean that in addition to the detrimental effect on shipping services, the environmental benefits of the wind farm will be negated by the extra fuel used (and thereby the CO2 emissions) by ships having to detour.
At this stage it is not possible to quantify the level of compensation that will be demanded, but the Chamber says that ships will be diverted every day of the year whether or not the wind farm is operational. It points out that diverting ships around the site will also add to passage times, thereby adding additional crew duty time and reduced port turnaround times (which may also result in the loss of port slots and the consequent inability to move essential goods). The Chamber also believes the proposed wind farm will present an additional hazard to ships navigating in the east Morecambe Bay area, seriously restricting their sea room, particularly in bad weather. This may lead to berths being blocked by ships unable to sail, affecting those sailing both to the Isle of Man and to Northern Ireland.
