Residents still want to see what wind farm will look like 

Hearings into Mooir Vannin Offshore Wind Farm conclude this week 

Residents have told the panel examining the proposed Mooir Vannin Offshore Wind Farm that they are still waiting to see how it will impact the island's east coast.

The latest special interest hearing, into the seascape and landscape, was held at The Comis Hotel today. 

Members of the public had been invited to attend to raise questions and gain further information from the Examining Body.

During the hearing attendee Jennifer Smith said she believed the technical detail of the application failed to help residents gain an appreciation of the scale of onshore and offshore infrastructure.

Giving the example of work that may be required in Groudle she said, for the layperson, 'it becomes quite difficult to get an idea of proportion and size' and that residents want to know more about how it would look and impact the area. 

She added: "I believe that the applicant should have, by now, actually have created some three-dimensional image of what this is going to look like, because that is the only way most people will be able to access and assess the impact on our lives."

That sentiment was echoed by attendee Michelle Cook who called for Orsted to produce the full 3D model that the panel examining the application had asked for. 

She said residents 'just want to see something'.

Turning her attention to the panel, Ms Cook said the company hadn't asked for proper feedback on the visuals from residents and added: "I just don't understand how that hasn't been requested as part of the examination process when you know that we don't know what it looks like because we bang on about it all the time."

Despite this panel chair Menaka Sahai said while the request would be taken forward to the company the panel had the visuals it needed to examine the application.

Orsted's representative did agree that the company would make the visual goggles available to people attending the hearings this week.

The hearing was later told that those visuals are based on the original consultation phase of the plan and do not reflect changes made since that time. 

The next sitting of the panel tomorrow (16 July) will focus on environmental issues with Friday's focusing on draft marine infrastructure consent and strategic matters.

Both of those hearings get underway at 10am.