00:00When I saw the plans and spoke to residents, particularly around the Newton, between that Newton, Kirkham sort of area,
00:08it was really clear, I was actually looking out of someone's official window, where the substations are proposed.
00:15Now, that affects the immunity of those people. Talking to the farmers, it affects their livelihoods and their land.
00:24It is cutting a furrow right across the field. I think that has occurred because the previous MP, quite frankly, was asleep at the wheel.
00:33He had an opportunity to influence this at the pre-structural stage.
00:40It arises because there hasn't been sufficient thought about the infrastructure of wind generation farms offshore.
00:52Just thinking, you need to bring it to the nearest one and pay for it.
00:55When this first arose, I couldn't immediately answer, what would you do differently?
01:00But since then, having done a bit of research, you look at the Docker Bank farm, which is the largest wind farm in Europe, off of the north-west of England.
01:12You look at other schemes on the continent, where a lot of the stuff is done at sea.
01:18Slightly more, it's alleged, expensive schemes. But I am now convinced there are alternatives to what we can do.
01:26As such, one of the first things I would do, if elected as your MP, is to understand who do I need to talk to to go and influence this,
01:34and understand what is the below-the-line items around this scheme, and how we can influence it to do something different.
01:41There are options out there, and I think I need to pursue them.
01:45Perhaps to stop you there, we've obviously left this particular one on for quite a bit, because it's the most common subject,
01:52but we've got to keep everybody to a fair amount of time.
01:56So I'm going to just ask you very briefly in a word, do you support it in principle?
02:02I support wind farms and renewable forms of energy, but that is needed.
02:07Not this particular scheme, because I don't think it's been thought through, and there are alternatives available.
02:12Andrew, if we come to you next on this particular one, that question of whether you support it in principle,
02:18and then your thoughts in general about how you would influence it, if and when it does come forward.
02:23No, I don't support it in principle. I think it is being planned to go through the route of least possible resistance,
02:31and therefore it's what's easiest for the developer, rather than what's right for the local area.
02:36I've been over many of the businesses and people that will be affected by it,
02:40and people are genuinely incredibly worried and stressed around what it will mean for their livelihoods,
02:45the farmers, in terms of the disruption, the levels and depths of which the cables will be laid,
02:50the damage it will do to the greenbelt, the size of the substations, and the disruption that it would cause across the site.
02:57I think there are more alternative cabling routes if I'm elected as the MP.
03:03I don't promise things to people that you can't deliver, because people then come back and say,
03:07well, you said you'd do this, and you'd have a magic wand, and you don't.
03:10The number one power a backbench Member of Parliament has is to use their voice in Parliament
03:16and the statutory implements they have in Parliament, and therefore if elected,
03:20I will attempt to table a debate in the House of Commons on the issue,
03:24to force the Secretary of State to get answers from the company about why they have chosen this route,
03:30what other routes have been assessed and like more alternative and appropriate routes that would cause less damage.
03:36There are plenty of brownfield sites along the Fylde coast, which are already in some cases used for energy production,
03:42that would make a more appropriate route.
03:44And the one thing that I would not do, which we've all read about in the papers over the last few weeks,
03:49is what's in the Labour Party manifesto to reduce the requirements to the planning situation for infrastructure in the greenbelt.
03:59I will fight to protect the greenbelt as the MP, and I will vote against any proposals that are brought in
04:05to reduce the powers of local people and local authorities to protect their countryside.
04:11Thank you.
04:12So just to be clear, Andrew, what was the route that the MPs proposed set you behind?
04:17Absolutely. I mean, if anything, the Ukraine conflict has shown us that energy security is an incredibly important issue alongside food security.
04:25But what we need to do is make sure that as we build that, we do it in a way which doesn't destroy the very things we're trying to protect in the first place.
04:33Tom, I'll come to you next on this one. Your thoughts on the principle of the scheme,
04:37and obviously I'm sure you'd want to come back on what Andrew said about Labour Party policy and planning permissions in the greenbelt.
04:46Labour Party policy on planning is quite simple. It needs strengthening and we're going to put funds into it.
04:51But let's talk about this scheme specifically. I support the development of offshore wind off our coasts.
04:57I've yet to speak to anybody in this constituency who disagrees with that.
05:01That does not mean that the onshore infrastructure needs to go the way that it's going.
05:05But let's be clear, it's not the developers of Morgan & Morgan who picked that route.
05:09It was National Grid with the agreement of government ministers.
05:13That's the line that Morgan & Morgan are following.
05:16It was long before the consultations that Mark referred to that that line was picked.
05:20And that was when our local MPs should have been getting involved with a major national strategic project.
05:32Read the document. National Grid say this has got minimal community impact and that's why we've picked it.
05:37Well...
05:44So I agree. Asleep at the wheel. Several people asleep at several wheels in fact.
05:49So what can we do differently? Well I could stand up and I could shout.
05:53But here's the thing, they'll most likely be a Labour government.
05:56So what I'll do, as soon as we know who the Labour Energy Secretary is, is I'll go and button on them and start asking them about it.
06:04Because the alternative involves getting the developers, our local representatives, other MPs here in the files, National Grid and the department together to come up with an alternative.
06:18Now I've been handed a plan by a man who's done a lot more thinking about this frankly than I think any of us here have, certainly more than I have to be honest.
06:26And we can look at an alternative connection to an existing National Grid line that would need upgrading.
06:34Clearly that needs some funding to do. Clearly there's got to be a discussion about who does that.
06:40But it's about looking for alternatives, engaging constructively.
06:44Because as I said, nobody doesn't want offshore wind, we just want it to be done far more fairly for our communities and our people.
06:53Thank you.
07:00Of course, like the boys, I'm all for wind farm, we all want green energy.
07:05I do oppose the route, strongly oppose the route.
07:09And I've only been at it four weeks.
07:12But there are different routes.
07:15The Stammer, which is only five kilometres in.
07:18We are trying to do a route which is 25 kilometres across Greenbelt, across farms, across people's land, across people's businesses.
07:28I mean, I know you're all trying to score points.
07:31But to be honest, how has it got to this point in the first place?
07:35I absolutely don't get it.
07:37It's no good slagging off the last MP.
07:39We've got to start from scratch now.
07:42We have to listen to the people of Fylde.
07:44There's lots of different groups that are opposed to it.
07:47I feel they all need to band together as one big group for a start-off.
07:52It won't work, there's 300 on a petition here and 300 there.
07:57We have to be listened to as a group in Fylde.
08:00I've had farmers, I went on to the farm at Laycock's.
08:03She's already had 15 acres that's been ploughed into to show everybody what it's like.
08:12The equestrian centre are going to lose the business at Ray Green.
08:15So it's alright shouting about what we're going to do.
08:18But we've actually got to this point and nobody's done anything.
08:22The fact I'm not with the party is a massive plus.
08:27Because I don't have to follow the party line.
08:29Unfortunately they say they'll vote but they have to follow a party line.
08:34I am totally opposed to the vote and I'll fight for it.
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