Three judges from London’s Court of Appeal have rejected a legal challenge from a campaign group seeking to stop construction of two offshore wind farms. The appeal launched by Substation Action Save East Suffolk (SASES) aimed to block planning permission that had been granted to ScottishPower Renewables (SPR) to construct two wind farms off the coast of the East of England.
SASES called into question the UK Government’s decision to grant Development Consent Orders for the two East Anglia wind farms, which will have a combined capacity of 1.47GW, with the group specifically appealing an earlier High Court decision to reject a judicial review into the planning permission.
Concerns were raised surrounding surface water flood risks from the network infrastructure, with arguments also being made that the cumulative impact of future developments had not been thoroughly examined when permissions were granted. In its appeal, SASES specifically objected to the onshore grid connection elements of the development and not the offshore wind farms themselves.
However, Lord Justices Coulson, Lewis and William Davis found that SPR was not legally required “to demonstrate that whenever there is a risk of flooding from surface water there are no other sites reasonably available where the proposed development could be located in an area of lower surface water flood risk”, confirming that the judge who granted original permissions “was correct in her interpretation of the policy”. The ruling also dismissed the cumulative impacts element of the appeal, noting that: “The effects of other potential projects […] did not have to be the subject of a cumulative impact assessment before development consent was granted.”
In response to its unsuccessful appeal, SASES published a statement on its website saying the group “is considering its next steps including seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court”.
It added that its “challenge to the misconceived and damaging Scottish Power and National Grid projects is far from over”.
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