Clause 96 - Safety zones around renewable energy installations
Energy Bill [Lords]
11:00 am
Mr Stephen Timms (Minister of State (e-Commerce & Competitiveness), Department of Trade and Industry; East Ham, Labour)
The hon. Lady assures us that she is in favour of renewable energy, and even said once that she was in favour of offshore wind energy, but she comes up with ever more creative objections to it. I have heard no objections on the grounds of the impact of noise on house prices.
I have been to all the UK offshore wind farms: North Hoyle, off the coast of Rhyl, which cannot be heard from onshore; Scroby Sands, off the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Waveney, near Great Yarmouth, which is much closer to the shore than North Hoyle, but which I do not think can be heard; and Blyth, which is in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Wansbeck (Mr. Murphy). I could not hear the turbines going round there either. There is no danger of people being troubled by the sound of turbines that are some miles offshore, and I think that we can comfortably assume that they will not cause difficulties.