Fylde Hustings: Response to windfarm plans
The Blackpool Gazette, Lancashire Post and Blackpool Lead invited the candidates standing for the Fylde constituency at the upcoming general election to a hustings in which they fielded questions from voters.
The candidates standing for election on 4th July were each given time to answer questions from an audience at The Lowther Pavilion Theatre in Lytham.
Four out of the seven people on the ballot took part in the event with Cheryl Morrison (Alliance for Democracy and Freedom), Brendan Wilkinson (Green Party) and Brook Wimbury (Reform UK) all absent.
In order of appearance on stage:
ANNE AITKEN (Independent)
TOM CALVER (Labour)
MARK JEWELL (Liberal Democrats)
ANDREW SNOWDEN (Conservative Party)
The candidates standing for election on 4th July were each given time to answer questions from an audience at The Lowther Pavilion Theatre in Lytham.
Four out of the seven people on the ballot took part in the event with Cheryl Morrison (Alliance for Democracy and Freedom), Brendan Wilkinson (Green Party) and Brook Wimbury (Reform UK) all absent.
In order of appearance on stage:
ANNE AITKEN (Independent)
TOM CALVER (Labour)
MARK JEWELL (Liberal Democrats)
ANDREW SNOWDEN (Conservative Party)
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NewsTranscript
00:00When I saw the plans and spoke to residents, particularly around the Newton, between that Newton, Kirkham sort of area,
00:08it was really clear, I was actually looking out of someone's official window, where the substations are proposed.
00:15Now, that affects the immunity of those people. Talking to the farmers, it affects their livelihoods and their land.
00:24It is cutting a furrow right across the field. I think that has occurred because the previous MP, quite frankly, was asleep at the wheel.
00:33He had an opportunity to influence this at the pre-structural stage.
00:40It arises because there hasn't been sufficient thought about the infrastructure of wind generation farms offshore.
00:52Just thinking, you need to bring it to the nearest one and pay for it.
00:55When this first arose, I couldn't immediately answer, what would you do differently?
01:00But since then, having done a bit of research, you look at the Docker Bank farm, which is the largest wind farm in Europe, off of the north-west of England.
01:12You look at other schemes on the continent, where a lot of the stuff is done at sea.
01:18Slightly more, it's alleged, expensive schemes. But I am now convinced there are alternatives to what we can do.
01:26As such, one of the first things I would do, if elected as your MP, is to understand who do I need to talk to to go and influence this,
01:34and understand what is the below-the-line items around this scheme, and how we can influence it to do something different.
01:41There are options out there, and I think I need to pursue them.
01:45Perhaps to stop you there, we've obviously left this particular one on for quite a bit, because it's the most common subject,
01:52but we've got to keep everybody to a fair amount of time.
01:56So I'm going to just ask you very briefly in a word, do you support it in principle?
02:02I support wind farms and renewable forms of energy, but that is needed.
02:07Not this particular scheme, because I don't think it's been thought through, and there are alternatives available.
02:12Andrew, if we come to you next on this particular one, that question of whether you support it in principle,
02:18and then your thoughts in general about how you would influence it, if and when it does come forward.
02:23No, I don't support it in principle. I think it is being planned to go through the route of least possible resistance,
02:31and therefore it's what's easiest for the developer, rather than what's right for the local area.
02:36I've been over many of the businesses and people that will be affected by it,
02:40and people are genuinely incredibly worried and stressed around what it will mean for their livelihoods,
02:45the farmers, in terms of the disruption, the levels and depths of which the cables will be laid,
02:50the damage it will do to the greenbelt, the size of the substations, and the disruption that it would cause across the site.
02:57I think there are more alternative cabling routes if I'm elected as the MP.
03:03I don't promise things to people that you can't deliver, because people then come back and say,
03:07well, you said you'd do this, and you'd have a magic wand, and you don't.
03:10The number one power a backbench Member of Parliament has is to use their voice in Parliament
03:16and the statutory implements they have in Parliament, and therefore if elected,
03:20I will attempt to table a debate in the House of Commons on the issue,
03:24to force the Secretary of State to get answers from the company about why they have chosen this route,
03:30what other routes have been assessed and like more alternative and appropriate routes that would cause less damage.
03:36There are plenty of brownfield sites along the Fylde coast, which are already in some cases used for energy production,
03:42that would make a more appropriate route.
03:44And the one thing that I would not do, which we've all read about in the papers over the last few weeks,
03:49is what's in the Labour Party manifesto to reduce the requirements to the planning situation for infrastructure in the greenbelt.
03:59I will fight to protect the greenbelt as the MP, and I will vote against any proposals that are brought in
04:05to reduce the powers of local people and local authorities to protect their countryside.
04:11Thank you.
04:12So just to be clear, Andrew, what was the route that the MPs proposed set you behind?
04:17Absolutely. I mean, if anything, the Ukraine conflict has shown us that energy security is an incredibly important issue alongside food security.
04:25But what we need to do is make sure that as we build that, we do it in a way which doesn't destroy the very things we're trying to protect in the first place.
04:33Tom, I'll come to you next on this one. Your thoughts on the principle of the scheme,
04:37and obviously I'm sure you'd want to come back on what Andrew said about Labour Party policy and planning permissions in the greenbelt.
04:46Labour Party policy on planning is quite simple. It needs strengthening and we're going to put funds into it.
04:51But let's talk about this scheme specifically. I support the development of offshore wind off our coasts.
04:57I've yet to speak to anybody in this constituency who disagrees with that.
05:01That does not mean that the onshore infrastructure needs to go the way that it's going.
05:05But let's be clear, it's not the developers of Morgan & Morgan who picked that route.
05:09It was National Grid with the agreement of government ministers.
05:13That's the line that Morgan & Morgan are following.
05:16It was long before the consultations that Mark referred to that that line was picked.
05:20And that was when our local MPs should have been getting involved with a major national strategic project.
05:32Read the document. National Grid say this has got minimal community impact and that's why we've picked it.
05:37Well...
05:44So I agree. Asleep at the wheel. Several people asleep at several wheels in fact.
05:49So what can we do differently? Well I could stand up and I could shout.
05:53But here's the thing, they'll most likely be a Labour government.
05:56So what I'll do, as soon as we know who the Labour Energy Secretary is, is I'll go and button on them and start asking them about it.
06:04Because the alternative involves getting the developers, our local representatives, other MPs here in the files, National Grid and the department together to come up with an alternative.
06:18Now I've been handed a plan by a man who's done a lot more thinking about this frankly than I think any of us here have, certainly more than I have to be honest.
06:26And we can look at an alternative connection to an existing National Grid line that would need upgrading.
06:34Clearly that needs some funding to do. Clearly there's got to be a discussion about who does that.
06:40But it's about looking for alternatives, engaging constructively.
06:44Because as I said, nobody doesn't want offshore wind, we just want it to be done far more fairly for our communities and our people.
06:53Thank you.
07:00Of course, like the boys, I'm all for wind farm, we all want green energy.
07:05I do oppose the route, strongly oppose the route.
07:09And I've only been at it four weeks.
07:12But there are different routes.
07:15The Stammer, which is only five kilometres in.
07:18We are trying to do a route which is 25 kilometres across Greenbelt, across farms, across people's land, across people's businesses.
07:28I mean, I know you're all trying to score points.
07:31But to be honest, how has it got to this point in the first place?
07:35I absolutely don't get it.
07:37It's no good slagging off the last MP.
07:39We've got to start from scratch now.
07:42We have to listen to the people of Fylde.
07:44There's lots of different groups that are opposed to it.
07:47I feel they all need to band together as one big group for a start-off.
07:52It won't work, there's 300 on a petition here and 300 there.
07:57We have to be listened to as a group in Fylde.
08:00I've had farmers, I went on to the farm at Laycock's.
08:03She's already had 15 acres that's been ploughed into to show everybody what it's like.
08:12The equestrian centre are going to lose the business at Ray Green.
08:15So it's alright shouting about what we're going to do.
08:18But we've actually got to this point and nobody's done anything.
08:22The fact I'm not with the party is a massive plus.
08:27Because I don't have to follow the party line.
08:29Unfortunately they say they'll vote but they have to follow a party line.
08:34I am totally opposed to the vote and I'll fight for it.