Nocton Fen Wind Farm - letter from Miller and Bryce

Vattenfall

In the Parish Council Report published 15 May 2015, there was mention of a letter and map issued to local residents by Miller & Bryce on behalf of Vattenfall which gave some cause for concern.  The Parish Council agreed to look into the matter.  I have now received further information:

Email from the Chair of the Parish Council dated 18 May 2015

'As I think I mentioned, on behalf of the Parish Council I have been in contact with Vattenfall to express its concern over the way in which the referencing letters were sent to residents and the content thereof. As you will see from the following extract of the email Graham Davey sent to me, they accept they got it wrong and I have been asked to publicise its response to allay any fears that they are looking to compulsorily purchase any property or land in connection with the proposed development. Do please feel free, therefore, to share this email with your members. Obviously, I do not know to whom the referencing letters were sent so have suggested to Graham that he also gets their Agent to issue some clarification.'

Explanation from Vattenfall

“Turning to issue of the land referencing, I completely acknowledge that the covering letter was poorly drafted and I regret that I did not insist on Miller & Bryce getting it checked with our comms team (which is what we did with the accompanying questionnaire).  I am therefore very grateful for your offer to pass on to affected members of the community a fuller explanation of why we needed to carry out the exercise.  To that end I have set out this explanation below.

• Firstly and most important – Vattenfall is not seeking to acquire by any means including compulsory purchase residential land or residential property.
• However Vattenfall has a statutory duty to consult with anyone who it thinks may have a connection, whether formal or informal, to land that is being considered as part of the wind farm project (e.g. an informal agreement with a farmer to use a corner of a field to keep a pony)
• The land that Vattenfall is considering as part of the project extends beyond the land at Nocton Fen (the area where the wind farm might be located). This additional land is for:

1. Access routes;
2. Highway junction widening;
3. Underground cables to connect to the local electrical grid network;
4. The electrical substation; and land for habitat mitigation.

• With the exception of the highway junction widening land, all of the other categories are on land owned by Beeswax.
• In the case of the highway widening land areas these typically involve small corners of fields.
• There are three access routes each involving different junctions that may need widening.

I think that sets out the essence of the situation.  If you are able to pass this on to anyone who has a concern I will be very grateful.  If anyone still has concerns and would like to speak to me directly please pass on my contact details.

Kind regards,

Graham
Graham Davey
Senior Development Manager
Vattenfall Wind Power Ltd
Sustainable Energy Projects
Abbey Warehouse, Penzance, TR18 4AR
Telephone: +44 (0) 1736 330171
Mobile: +44 (0) 7980 256357 graham.davey@vattenfall.com”