Advertisement

New plan for waterfront site earmarked for £800m redevelopment

Wind turbine blades are already being stored on the old power station site, most of which has now been levelled <i>(Image: Martini archive)</i>
Wind turbine blades are already being stored on the old power station site, most of which has now been levelled (Image: Martini archive)

PLANNING chiefs have received another application to store wind turbine blades on land earmarked for a massive redevelopment project expected to cost £800m.

Fawley Waterside Ltd (FWL) is seeking consent to stockpile blades on two parts of a 300-acre site formerly occupied by Fawley power station.

As reported in the Daily Echo, FWL is planning to build more than 1,000 homes on the land, plus commercial and community facilities.

Daily Echo: Most of the former Fawley power station has been demolished to make way for a massive redevelopment scheme costing as much as £1bn
Daily Echo: Most of the former Fawley power station has been demolished to make way for a massive redevelopment scheme costing as much as £1bn

Most of the former Fawley power station has been demolished to make way for a massive redevelopment scheme costing as much as £1bn (Image: Andy Amor)

The ambitious scheme was approved in principle by New Forest District Council in 2020.

But the latest application to temporarily store wind turbine blades on the site says the authority is working with FWL to resolve matters that need to be agreed before the necessary legal agreement can be completed.

READ MORE: Fawley Waterside awaiting consent for £800m power station scheme

Previous proposals to stockpile blades on the land, and at nearby Fawley Quarry, have been approved by the council and the New Forest National Park Authority.

The new application follows the expiry of planning permission to use the quarry.

If consent is granted blades will be stored - until December 2025 - on land previously occupied by the power station's boiler room and control room.

Daily Echo: Jeremy Corbyn, the then Labour leader, visited Fawley in 2019 to see wind turbine blades being painted
Daily Echo: Jeremy Corbyn, the then Labour leader, visited Fawley in 2019 to see wind turbine blades being painted

Jeremy Corbyn, the then Labour leader, visited Fawley in 2019 to see wind turbine blades being painted (Image: Newsquest.)

A planning statement that accompanies the application says Vestas manufactures the 80m long blades at Newport on the Isle of Wight and moves them by barge to Fawley for painting and storage.

It adds: "The current production will be used for the Seagreen offshore wind farm that is located in UK North Sea waters.

"The pre-assembly port for the project is the Port of Able on the River Tees.

"Currently approximately six blades per week are made at Newport and these need to be stored at Fawley before they are moved in batches to the Port of Able.

READ MORE: New Forest District Council approves plan to transform Fawley power station site

"The majority of blades are erected off-shore during the summer months due to adverse weather conditions during the winter. Therefore there is a particular need to store blades produced during the winter."

Daily Echo: The former control room at Fawley power station is about to be demolished
Daily Echo: The former control room at Fawley power station is about to be demolished

The former control room at Fawley power station is about to be demolished (Image: Chris Yandell, Newsquest)

In 2019 the then Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, visited Fawley to see blades being painted.

He heard how the Vestas site employed around 50 people while a further 700 staff worked at the company's manufacturing site across the Solent.

Mr Corbyn described the process as "very impressive indeed".

He added: "I’ve been talking to the directors about the systems they use and the very high quality of the work they do, but also the jobs that have been created and the training that’s needed for those jobs."

A message from the Editor

Thank you for reading this article. Your support means we can bring you the latest breaking news, exclusive Saints features and coverage - and much more.

Digital subscribers get unrestricted access to all of our stories, our dedicated app including e-version of the newspaper, and an advertising-light website.

If you want all the latest articles delivered straight to your inbox you can join the thousands of subscribers who are signed up to our newsletters.

They include our popular daily morning news briefing, breaking news, crime and court, and Southampton FC bulletins - plus business, heritage and our what's on newsletters.