BOURNEMOUTH Tourism Management Board and Bournemouth Accommodation and Hotel Association are insulted by comments made by Ian Cambrook, Navitus Bay’s business and community engagement manager, that businesses should support the controversial Navitus Bay offshore wind farm development.
Navitus Bay jeopardises over 4,500 local jobs and will cut tourism expenditure in the area by at least £210million every year. Its own research forecasts a 20-32 per cent drop in visitor numbers.
Tourism businesses which operate on tight margins will fail; the few local jobs that the wind farm development might create will be outweighed by a ratio of at least ten jobs lost to everyone gained.
Yet EDF and Eneco’s Navitus Bay blindly refuses to acknowledge these hard facts and is now incredulously telling us to welcome the vast offshore wind farm scheme. This is further compounded by their reluctance to confirm which port will be used during the construction phase of the project, and where the turbines will be manufactured.
Navitus Bay is deeply flawed, unpopular and will cripple our local tourism business. We do not want it and will not welcome it.
Andrew Woodland
BTMB hospitality representative and Chairman of BAHA
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