THE boss of tourism in Bournemouth says the council will continue to fight the proposed Navitus Bay Wind Park because the view out to sea is crucial to the town’s appeal.

Earlier this week, the Daily Echo published a case study on Margate in Kent, where three wind farms are visible from the shore.

Reaction there was largely that the turbines had little impact on the town, its business and its tourism trade.

But Mark Smith, director of tourism at Bournemouth Borough Council, said that the Dorset resort, along with its neighbouring towns, was an entirely different proposition.

He said: “We were very aware of what has happened in other places and I’ve been to most of them.

“We did use the evidence of the other locations within our submission that we made (to the Planning Inspectorate).

“We were aware that the tourism in that part of Kent has been going down dramatically since the 1960s.

“It doesn’t have the accommodation base that we have in this area and it’s nothing like the scale of operation.”

Mr Smith said that a Centre for Social Justice report published last year highlighted five seaside resorts that had problems and four of them, including Margate, had wind farms.

Earlier this year the Echo reported Bournemouth concern’s that it could lose a whopping £100million a year – one fifth of its £500million tourism economy – if a predicted drop in visitors of 20 per cent became a reality.

“They illustrated that it was no longer a successful tourism town, while they highlighted that Bournemouth was an exception.

“That report picked out that Margate is not in any way comparable with Bournemouth or the resorts around the bay.

“Some of the other places around the country where they have wind farms are not comparable with this area.

“If you turn people off coming to an area that’s highly dependent on tourism and is predicting growth, then obviously we can be talking big money and that’s where the figures that we have been talking about become significant,” he added.

Mr Smith said that the resorts in Dorset had four-to-five times the tourism economy in terms of value compared to Margate, so the effect would be magnified.

If approved, the Navitus Bay project would see up to 194 turbines situated 13 miles from Bournemouth.

The Planning Inspectorate is currently examining the application, with hearings continuing this week in Bournemouth.