I MUST respond to Jeff Williams (Letters, Daily Echo, July 20) about the Navitus Bay wind farm proposals.

It is wishful thinking to hope that EDF and Eneco’s development will not impact Bournemouth’s tourism.

It is important to again make it clear that the forecast £100million annual loss of business has been taken from Navitus Bay’s own research.

The developer asked visitors whether construction of the wind farm would deter them from coming to the area. The results alarmingly revealed that over one million tourists will stop visiting Bournemouth.

Navitus Bay’s consultants have even admitted that the wind farm will have a ‘significant’ visual impact.

Contrary to Mr Williams’ inaccurate comments, I have visited Great Yarmouth and Cromer and seen the offshore wind farm there.

It is on a tiny scale compared to what is proposed for our beautiful coastline. Nor do any other wind farms off the British coast compare to these plans.

What is being proposed here in Bournemouth is entirely different.

Navitus Bay is unprecedented in terms of its scale, location and risks to the environment, the local economy and jobs.

Offshore wind farms have historically avoided development close to sensitive coasts where tourism is heavily reliant on beautiful natural surroundings. These plans have taken no account of this and will be a complete change from what has been developed elsewhere off the British coast.

That is the point and why we are so hostile to the proposals. We urge the minister at the Department for Energy and Climate Change to maintain this approach and reject the Navitus Bay application.

CLLR JOHN BEESLEY

Leader of Bournemouth council