Habitat concerns delay offshore wind port project

A planning decision on the UK’s first major offshore wind manufacturing site has been delayed for a second time due to concerns about its impact on habitats.

On 28 August, transport minister Norman Baker announced he was “minded to approve” Able UK’s plan for a 320-hectare port at Killingholme on the Humber estuary.

He will make a decision by 13 December, far later than the original May deadline.

But he will not approve the project unless Able can provide reassurance that proposed compensatory habitat, needed to replace lost intertidal mudflats, will work. Natural England says there is a “substantial risk” the current plan will not.