Navitus Bay objectors are "dinosaurs", says Green party leader

The Australian, who led her party to more than 1.5million votes at this year’s General Election, was at Chaplins and the Cellar Bar in Boscombe on Thursday to congratulate her new councillor Simon Bull for winning the Green’s first seat in Bournemouth.

After giving a talk to party activists, she said the Green’s now have an important role scrutinising Bournemouth’s Conservative led council and supporting the controversial £3billion wind farm.

“We are stuck with a fossil, 20th century dinosaur approach to energy that needs to change,” she said, when asked by the Daily Echo why she disagreed with objectors.

“It’s important because we need to harness the power of the wind. We need renewable energy and we have to cut our carbon emissions - and offshore wind is an important stable, secure source of that energy.

“We have seen the government pursue the fantasy of fracking, which has not come through at all. Even people in the industry say it is not a significant source. Yet how often have you heard Osborne and Cameron talk about fracking versus talking about renewable energy?

“The fact is the rest of the world is powering ahead on this. In China last year 48 per cent of their new electricity generation was renewable. We are being left behind.”

Challenged by the Echo that Navitus could damage tourism and that the industrial structures being placed in the seabed may create more environmental problems than they solve, she responded: “In terms of energy there is no such thing as zero environmental impact energy generation.

“If you look at the alternative of fracking rigs – they are going to have an environmental impact too. If you build houses, birds will fly into windows of houses.

"One of the other important things this government has entirely neglected is energy conservation. We have a huge problem with fuel poverty and we haven’t been doing what we need to be doing.”