THE proposed Navitus Bay wind farm development could produce as little as 20 to 30 per cent of the one gigawatt estimated output quoted in the original planning application, it was claimed at Dorset County Council’s cabinet meeting yesterday.

The county council’s planning committee met to discuss the proposed development on Tuesday and opposed the application.

Yesterday the cabinet supported that decision and opposed the wind farm application in its current form.

During the meeting chairman Cllr Spencer Flower referred to claims there could be discrepancies between estimated and actual power output from the turbines.

Cllr Flower said: “The public are being asked to make a big sacrifice. There is tremendous destruction of our natural environment for what seems to be little gain.”

Don Gobbett, head of planning, confirmed he did not have precise figures on average output and added estimates quoted by Navitus Bay Development Limited were standard figures used for a large number of wind farms.

He suggested NBDL’s initial estimates might not reflect average output if calculations were based on all turbines operating at once, or did not consider some energy could be lost when transferring it from the turbines.

Other points raised echoed many of the initial report findings mentioning light pollution, noise, and potential effects on wildlife and the environment.