A SEVEN point plan outlining Borough of Poole’s concerns on the proposed £3 billion Navitus Bay wind farm will be debated at full council tomorrow night.

This plan, introduced at a special economy overview & scrutiny committee meeting today, will become one of many documents to be considered by the Government’s Planning Inspectorate, which will eventually rule on the controversial wind farm proposal.

French energy giant EDF and Dutch firm Eneco want to erect up to 194 turbines - each towering 200 metres high – off the Dorset coast.

If agreed, the 153 km2 offshore plant will be sited 14.4 km from Purbeck’s Durlston Head.

During Monday’s Borough of Poole committee meeting, members heard from a string of residents, campaigners and local business owners, who voiced their support and opposition to the green energy project - and to the council’s seven point plan.

Dr Martin Price, from East Dorset Friends of the Earth, said: “I’d remind the council that it is committed to the renewable energy strategy for Poole, Bournemouth and Dorset.”

He said the environmental cost of failing to embrace renewable energy projects such as Navitus Bay would be to hasten global climate change.

“We would urge the council to consider some of the costs of not proceeding,” he added.

Meanwhile, in stark opposition to Dr Price, chairman of Dorset’s Campaign to Protect Rural England Group, Terry Stewart, said the wind farm would be a “disaster” for Dorset.

He told the committee: “The Times newspaper has reported that the government’s chief climate adviser, Lord Deben, has said that Britain has approved enough wind turbines to meet the legally binding climate change targets for renewable energy by 2020, leaving the public to choose other ways to cut emissions in future.

“We don’t need to build any more offshore turbines that are so much more expensive than onshore turbines to meet our 2020 legal target,” he stressed.

Roy Pointer of the Poole & Christchurch Bay Association also spoke against the proposals.

“Navitus Bay is too big, too close and totally in the wrong location,” he said.

But Tony Hamilton, of the environment group Agenda 21, called for Poole to do all it could to reduce the threat of climate change.

He said: “We welcome the positive contribution Navitus Bay would make to reducing our greenhouse gases.”

Ends BLOB The plan that - subject to revised wording - committee members agreed to be debated at full council, called for the inspectorate to consider the following points: • Offshore visual impact/mitigation • Offshore ornithology – impact on migrant seabirds • Physical processes – impact on coastal features, wave or tidal movements and sediment disturbance • Marine mammals and mega fauna - impact upon • Offshore socio/economic impacts and mitigation • Tourism - impact on • Macro climatic impacts – will the carbon savings offset carbon costs of the project