Beach campaigners recreate Pink Floyd album art
A campaign group against plans to bring an electricity cable from an offshore wind farm onshore at a Devon beach have staged a Pink Floyd-inspired demonstration.
White Cross offshore wind farm's plans at Saunton Sands - where the rock band shot the cover for its 1987 album A Momentary Lapse of Reason - were approved by North Devon Council on 7 May, despite more than 1,800 objections.
Founder of Save Our Sands, Helen Cooper, held the demonstration on Sunday morning. She said: "If this can be approved in this area, nowhere is safe."
North Devon councillors were won over by the developers' argument the project would create new jobs and bring renewable energy to the region.
'Bitterly disappointed'
White Cross offshore wind farm wants to put seven floating turbines about 30 miles (52km) off the north Devon coast and plans to bring a power cable onshore at Saunton Sands, then under Braunton Burrows and across the Taw Estuary to connect to a new electricity substation.
ADVERTISEMENT
Ms Cooper said she was "bitterly disappointed but not surprised" after plans were approved.
She said the idea for the demonstration came after the council's planning meeting, in which she said she thought the council had its own "momentary lapse of reason to have approved" the plans.
When plans were approved, Al Rayner, the project director for White Cross, promised his company would "inject £153m into the local economy" and it was an "enormous" opportunity.
Objectors at the planning meeting cited concerns about the impact on tourism, on the environment and about high numbers of heavy goods vehicles.
About 100 members of the public came to the meeting with the vast majority against the plans, while leading figures from business and education spoke in favour of the application.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Pink Floyd album artwork depicts dozens of beds with metal frames stretching out far into the distance on the beach, with a man sitting on one bed holding a mirror.
Members of the campaign group raised about £895 in less than 24 hours to fund the demonstration, Ms Cooper said.
"We've been really overwhelmed by the support," she added. "It's to highlight the fact that we feel... we have been silenced.
"What we're trying to do is highlight the fact that we really need people to value this area a lot more.
"It's a very precious environment.
"We feel if this can be approved in this area, nowhere is safe, nowhere in the UK, nowhere in the world."
Ms Cooper said the campaign group had not been set up against the wind farm or the cable itself, but it was against the cable route.
ADVERTISEMENT
She added: "Our beauty, our ecology, our environment is so very special, not just in North Devon, and that doesn't seem to be given the sort of respect it deserves."
The BBC has asked North Devon Council for comment.
Follow BBC Devon on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.
More on this story
Related internet links
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Bloomberg
Allegra Stratton: Can Restoration, not Revolution, Work for UK?
Today I'd love you to read this wonderful dispatch from our Irina Anghel. She's been to Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, the island where Donald Trump's mother was born, to see how they are braced for the effect of her son's tariffs. It's illustrated with a beautiful photo portrait by Emily Macinnes of fourth-generation Harris Tweed weaver Iain Martin, dressed in a handsome wool blazer, working on his loom at home.
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Bloomberg
Tax-Hike Pressures to Follow UK Spending Review, Economists Say
UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves is increasingly likely to have to raise taxes later this year as weak growth, higher borrowing costs and top-ups for public services put her fiscal rules at risk, economists warned. Just days before Wednesday's Spending Review, when Reeves will allocate roughly £600 billion of annual spending between departments, former Bank of England rate-setter Michael Saunders said it was 'not hard to see pressures for extra fiscal tightening of £15 billion-£30 billion' at the autumn budget.
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
The departure of Matt Hobbs makes one thing clear: Wolves are going all-in on Pereira
It is entirely possible that Wolverhampton Wanderers' unexpected footballing restructure will work out well. There are clear signs that the decisions made this week might signal a loosening of the purse strings from owners Fosun, which will give the club a better chance of building a stronger squad. Advertisement But it is hard to view the departure of sporting director Matt Hobbs 'by mutual consent' — and the associated changes at the top of the club — on the eve of a crucial transfer window as anything other than a calculated gamble. There are many things to take from Hobbs' exit and the expected arrival of the former Sampdoria technical director Domenico Teti, but the overriding sense is that the move means greater authority for Vitor Pereira. The popular head coach has made a big impression on chairman Jeff Shi, so much so that he and owners Fosun have decided to expand the remit of the head coach, who will now take on more of an old-school manager's role with a greater say over which players come and go this summer. Teti might take on a similar title to the one vacated by Hobbs, but his remit is expected to be very different — a hands-on lieutenant for Pereira, working to the manager's will and putting in place his vision rather than Hobbs' lighter-touch approach, which comprised overseeing wider football operations, focusing mainly on recruitment and offering help to the head coach at training-ground level when asked for it. That puts Pereira front and centre as the most powerful head coach at Wolves since Nuno Espirito Santo. While Julen Lopetegui was a leader at the training ground, he did not stick around long enough to fully cement his authority. And it seems inconceivable that Fosun would have given the head coach such expanded powers if they did not plan to back him in the summer transfer window and give him the squad he wants. That is a good thing for Wolves. After two or three years of frugality in the transfer market to claw back the overspending at the end of the Nuno era and under Bruno Lage, there are clear signs that Fosun now accept the need for targeted investment in the squad. So, for the first time in several summers, sources with knowledge of the restructuring — speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect their positions — have predicted this transfer window could result in Wolves spending more than they raise on transfers. Advertisement The risk, however, is clear. Pereira's impact at Wolves last season is not in doubt, taking a team on its knees at the end of Gary O'Neil's rollercoaster reign and dragging it clear of relegation trouble with time to spare, all while building a charming bond with supporters and his players. But Wolves are now asking the Portuguese coach to fulfil a role for which he has little recent experience. In the past 12 years since leaving Porto, his hometown club, Pereira has held 10 managerial or coaching roles, with his three years in China at Shanghai SIPG the longest of his stints. He has won titles and had many more successes than failures, but he has rarely remained long enough to do the kind of building job he is now being entrusted with by Wolves. He has the charisma and knowledge that suggest he is capable of being more than a journeyman head coach, but he does not have masses of recent proof on his CV. So the decision still represents a calculated leap of faith. As for Hobbs, he can leave Wolves with his reputation enhanced on the back of two and a half years in which he has helped the club navigate choppy financial waters while maintaining their Premier League status, even if there were some scary moments along the way. Each of his transfer windows as sporting director came with a different remit — from the pressing need to give Lopetegui the tools for survival in his first, to the need to claw back a big financial deficit in his second, to supporting O'Neil to build a younger, fresher side in the next couple while continuing to turn a net profit, to another desperate rescue act this January. Each time, Wolves achieved the owners' objectives — even if Hobbs might have found himself at the centre of supporter discontent at the absence of consistency and coherence that, in truth, came from above him. And as well as pulling off the deals that made the necessary short-term impact when needed — Craig Dawson and Mario Lemina in January 2023 and Emmanuel Agbadou and Marshall Munetsi two years later — Hobbs left Wolves with assets such as the recently sold Matheus Cunha, Joao Gomes and Andre, who are certain to achieve huge profits, and others including Jorgen Strand Larsen and Rodrigo Gomes who might do likewise. Advertisement It is impossible to fully assess the impact of a sporting director at a club like Wolves, where ultimately key decisions are taken and policy is set above their head. But it is clear that Hobbs got much more right than he got wrong in his two and a half years in the top job, which followed seven and a half in various other roles. He achieved the profits the owners demanded while helping keep the club in the top tier and his input was respected by the club, who offered him a role in their new-look setup in an effort to keep his expertise. Ultimately, Hobbs decided a position with watered-down responsibilities was not for him and chose the clean break that he felt was better for both him and the club, leaving Shi and Pereira free to build on the foundations he laid. If Fosun backs them with the kind of investment that was rarely seen on Hobbs' watch, more exciting times might lie ahead. And if Pereira proves as good at team-building off the pitch as he has at team-building on it, the change might turn out to be inspired. But the mere presence of such significant 'ifs' highlights that it all comes with a degree of risk.
