MEMBERS of Parliament and councils are among those calling for ‘Plan B’ for the wind farm off the Dorset coast to be considered in its own right.

The deadline has passed for those with an interest in the Navitus Bay project to make their position clear, in particular in regard to the ‘mitigation option’ put forward by project developers Navitus Bay Development Ltd.

Although NBDL says it remains committed to its original plans, which would see as many as 194 turbines up to 200m high constructed, it has proposed a smaller development of 105 turbines, which would be 11 miles from shore rather than nine.

But controversy has raged over whether that plan should be considered as part of the current process by the Planning Inspectorate.

Now, ahead of final hearings later this month, many have called for it to be considered from scratch on its own in representations submitted to the Planning Inspectorate.

Dorset County Council said that it remained opposed and that the ‘mitigation option put forward by the applicant raises significant issues as to the adequacy of public consultation and the examining authority should therefore consider carefully whether the applicant should be required to submit the mitigation option as a fresh application’.

Bournemouth Borough Council said that it would be ‘entirely unreasonable’ to consider Plan B as a ‘minor revision’ and it should be a new application.

Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood said that there needed to be ‘additional time for full and thorough examination’.

Bournemouth West MP Conor Burns added: “Given the material change to the proposal, I find it undemocratic that local people, local businesses and local authorities have been given such limited information on which to base a view, and that only those already registered as interested parties will have the opportunity to comment.

“I therefore call on the Planning Inspectorate to reject the TMO (Turbine Mitigation Option) as an option within the original application.”

Poole MP Robert Syms said that the mitigation option should go through the full process ‘without being smuggled in to the process at this late stage’.

Opposition group Poole and Christchurch Bays Association called the mitigation option ‘unlawful and an abuse of process’, while Challenge Navitus, which also objects, said it should be a new application.

Last week, NBDL project director Mike Unsworth said that it remained committed to its original proposal, but said that the second plan reduced ‘certain impacts of the scheme’.

Meetings are due to take place in Bournemouth on Thursday, January 22 before the examination closes on Wednesday, March 11.