By Alex Peace

THE South-West’s MEP has vowed that local young people will benefit if Navitus Bay wind farm gets the go ahead.

The farm will potentially be located off the Dorset and Hampshire coasts, to the west of the Isle of Wight.

Portland Port is one of three potential sites alongside Ports at Poole and Yarmouth for the operations and maintenance base.

The Labour MEP for the South-West and Gibraltar Clare Moody was visiting the college to hold discussions about how the college could train local people for highly skilled jobs as part of the project.

She said that the talks went well regarding clean energy and local jobs.

She said: “It has been really good. The reason I came here was that I want to make sure that Dorset and Weymouth and Portland get the benefits of the Navitus Bay development. This was always about the future and about ensuring that we have got secure, clean energy plus it is also about that our young people benefit.”

A decision on a development consent order for the project is due from the Secretary of State for Energy at some point this year and if this is granted the next step of the production can begin with pre-construction engineering, supply chain tendering for turbines, foundations and cables can commence.

There have been large amounts of opposition to the project with claims it will ruin the area’s natural beauty and drive visitors away but these are claims that Mrs Moody disputes.

She said: “Off shore wind farms have been built in other areas and they haven’t seen the impact that is being claimed, these are going to be 9 miles off the coast.

If they are talking about visual pollution or noise that isn’t exactly going to have the dramatic impact that some people are suggesting.”

It is estimated that the project could create as many as 220 local jobs during the initial construction phase and a further 160 jobs will be based at the operations and maintenance base for the 25 year life-span of the project, potentially in Portland.

The Labour MEP says the college is one of the reasons that Portland is such a good potential site.

She said: “We have got the college and that is another reason why the port would be a great idea.

“It is vital that we have a secure and a clean energy supply but equally we need to make sure that we benefit from the jobs that come from that.”

The EDF backed Navitus Bay project, if approved is currently pencilled in for completion in 2020/2021 and EDF claim the farm could produce enough energy to fuel 700,000 homes each year.