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Rampion 2

Rampion 2 Offshore Wind Farm

Background

Rampion 2 is the proposed extension to the existing Rampion Offshore Wind Farm; its stated aim is to provide enhanced green energy to the national grid.

The Planning Application states the power lines will come ashore at Climping and move across the landscape via seven discreet areas, including parts of this parish, to the proposed substation at Oakendene, Cowfold before connecting to the national grid at Bolney.

A public meeting was held in the Village Hall on Wednesday 23 November 2022, when residents had a chance to hear from, and ask questions of, members of the Rampion 2 project team first-hand.

If you were unable to attend the meeting, further information on Rampion 2 and the proposed current alterations to the cable route can be found at:

https://rampion2.com/consultation-2022/

Email from Cowfold Parish Council to Rampion 2 Team Members on 11 January 2023

Cowfold Parish Council sent an email to Rampion 2 Team Members expressing concerns regarding the extent and clarity of information provided to local residents to date and requesting a further consultation period to allow their issues to be properly addressed. This is reproduced below:

Subject: Rampion 2 in Cowfold

Date: Wednesday 11 January 2023

To: Rampion 2 Team Members, Sarah Payne, County Councillor (WSCC), Jonathan Chowen and Lynn Lambert, District Councillors (HDC), Michael Elkington, WSCC

Copied to: Andrew Griffith, MP

Good Morning/Afternoon,

Following on from the Public Meeting (23 November 2022) sponsored by Cowfold Parish Council in which members of the Rampion 2 team addressed residents of the parish and a subsequent Parish Council Meeting held on 12 December 2022 the Parish Council wishes to make direct representation to the Rampion 2 project on behalf of a number of households within the parish.

Concerns have been reiterated to Rampion 2 team members in person, via letters and emails of members of the parish’s dissatisfaction with the manner in which the aims and objectives of the project will be achieved. At the Public Meeting attendees were informed that a third party communications company had been employed by Rampion 2 to engage directly with affected residents by means of letters and posters sent directly to the Parish Council, the latter were not received by the Parish Clerk or any other councillors. These communications were supported by a leaflet, which in itself some residents felt lacked clarity, alerting members of the parish at an unduly late date to the consultation period relating to the proposed alteration of the cable route path. This includes the access point to the nominated Oakendene substation site. 

There is within the parish community a marked degree of scepticism as to the efficacy with which this process was expedited.  Many households have stated that they did not receive either the direct communication by letter, as required by law, to those properties which will be impacted upon by the Rampion 2 project works or the information leaflets for the wider parish. Thus, many residents were unaware of the consultation period and the associated public drop-in options. The presence of Rampion 2 team members at the Parish Council’s public meeting enabled a degree of outreach to residents, albeit this took place towards the end of the public consultation period. 

Whilst Cowfold Parish Council wishes to support the promotion of wider green energy initiatives for the long-term future benefit of our community, it finds itself unable to champion a project which, to date, appears to have been less than effectively open and engaged with the residents of Cowfold and their justifiable concerns. Given these stated issues voiced by a growing number of residents, Cowfold Parish Council calls upon Rampion 2 to engage intelligibly with the community. The purpose of this being to provide additional information in a comprehensive and clearly understandable format and to re-open or initiate a further consultation period focusing on the implications and impacts for the parish of Cowfold.

Yours etc.

Stephen Reading 

Chairman

Cowfold Parish Council

Response from Rampion 2 0n 19 January 2023

A response to the Parish Council’s email of 11 January 2023 was received from Chris Tomlinson, Development & Stakeholder Manager, Rampion 2, on Thursday 19 January 2023 and can be accessed via the following link:

Promotion of Rampion-2 Consultations in and around Cowfold 2021-22

Email from Cowfold Parish Council to Chris Tomlinson on 23 April 2023

A follow-up email was sent by Cowfold Parish Council on Monday 24 April 2023 to Chris Tomlinson, Development & Stakeholder Manager, Rampion 2,  reiterating its concern regarding the continuing lack of information being provided to residents in the village. This is reproduced below:

Subject: Rampion 2 in Cowfold

Date: Monday 24 April 2023

To: Rampion 2 Team Members, Sarah Payne, County Councillor (WSCC), Jonathan Chowen and Lynn Lambert, District Councillors (HDC), Michael Elkington, WSCC

Copied to: Andrew Griffith, MP

Good Morning/Afternoon Chris,

Further to our correspondence earlier in the year (Reading/Rampion 2, dated 11 January 2023 and Tomlinson/Reading, dated 18 January 2023) I wish to strongly reiterate Cowfold Parish Council’s ongoing concerns on behalf of residents as to the poor standards of Rampion 2’s community communications strategy. The Parish Council is aware of the forthcoming Rampion 2 Community (Onshore) Project Liaison Group and has indicated its wish to participate, which has been acknowledged by your Project Liaison Group Chair and Facilitator. However, certain residents in the Parish continue to feel that a paucity, or absence, of information has been disseminated within the community.

Cowfold Parish Council is aware that Rampion 2 has received a variety of communications from within the Parish dating back several years voicing dissatisfaction and distress over this perceived lack of information. However, wishing to highlight the Parish Council’s ongoing unease I include below a number of extracts from some of the many emails directed and copied to us to reinforce the considerable misgivings voiced in this email.

  1. 18 July 2021: “Illegibility of Rampion 2 maps, particularly the background detail fade on sheet 20”.
  2. 6 August 2021: “This is a major infrastructure project, much larger than Rampion I, and I do not think local residents are aware of the consequences yet for their village for years”.
  3. 3 November 2021: The impression was given that the Oakendene estate was outside the boundaries of the parish and that the plan to churn up land for a cable 10 kilometers more than is needed and affecting all the welcome and many walkers from Cowfold within the parish south of the village was irrelevant to the parish.
  4. 30 November 2022: “Despite being explicitly told at the (public) meeting in Cowfold that I could submit multiple online responses, I find this not to be the case as the system will not allow a second submission from the same email address“.
  5. 3 February 2023: “One of the most unsettling aspects has been the apparent lack of consultation So many residents of Cowfold, and within the surrounding 3km area, have known nothing about the proposed development”.
  6. 3 February 2023: “The Rampion leaflet that some residents received, (in October/November 2022) but certainly not all, was misleading. Analysis of such will reveal that it failed to disclose relevant information and did not even mention the sub-station. It lacked adequate detail and was misleading at best”.
  7. 10 February 2023: “There was apparently a two year consultation process and yet only a few people were aware of this massive proposal.”
  8. 10 February 2023: “In October 2022 we received in the post Section 42 notices from you (Rampion 2) along with two sets of maps, dated July 2021 and October 2022. So did the businesses at Oakendene Industrial estate, being also in the RH13 8AZ postcode although it is not clear exactly when they received them, possibly considerably later as they were delivered by hand rather than by Royal Mail. They were told that it was all agreed and this was just to let them know, and they were asked to sign to confirm receipt… However, neither we, nor any of the businesses in Oakendene, received any such notifications in the July 2021 consultation, nor it would seem did any of our neighbours despite being in the vicinity of one of the proposed substation sites from the outset of the consultation”.

In addition, further concerns have been voiced on behalf of residents in Moatfield Lane and Kings Lane.  These householders are in receipt of a letter from the Rampion 2 Project Team, dated 4 April 2023, entitled Targeted consultation pursuant to section 42 of the Planning Act 2008. Residents are questioning the iteration of prior consultation and the clarity of the information contained within the letter.

I am sure you will agree that Cowfold Parish Council, having been in receipt of these and other emails reiterating the recurrent themes of poor standards of communications and community interaction, is fully entitled to require Rampion 2 to consider its protocols in respect of Cowfold residents and radically enhance the standards of engagement we have seen to date.

Yours sincerely,

Steve Reading

Chairman, Cowfold Parish Council