CONCERNS about the potential effects of the proposed Poole Bay windfarm have heightened after councillors were shown video images of what it could look like.

Challenge Navitus, a group opposing the Navitus Bay windfarm plans, showed their 3D video simulation to a panel of councillors from Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch.

The videos were produced by Andrew Langley, an engineer from Harman’s Cross who specialises in mathematical modelling.

No plans have yet been submitted but the proposed windfarm would occupy a site of around 200 square kilometres and would contain between 133 and 333 turbines, each between 150m and 210m tall.

The closest turbines would be around 1.8 times the height of the Isle of Wight, as seen from Bournemouth, but the biggest visual impact will be from Durlston, where turbines could be around three times the height of the Isle of Wight.

Following the meeting, Bournemouth tourism boss Mark Smith said: “I do think that most people will find the images quite surprising. Eneco so far haven’t really been forthcoming with information on what it’s going to look like.”

Bournemouth Cllr Stephen Chappell said: “That’s the most accurate visualisation that I’ve seen and I’m now even more concerned about what might happen in the bay.”

And Dorset County Cllr Colin Jamieson said: “It is clear that the impact of the wind farm is far more significant than that shown in the Navitus documentation.

“Of particular interest is the scale of the proposal, the distance from the coastal vantage points, the effect on the water leisure and marine industries and the impact on migrating birds. The video montage showed quite clearly the dominance of the proposal, the hundreds of turbines would transform the area from a residential and leisure bay with a small fishing fleet into an industrial site of an unacceptable scale.” Helen Cassini, consents manager for Navitus Bay, said: “Eneco is unable to comment on the accuracy of the ‘Challenge Navitus’ videos as we are not aware of the methodology which was used to create them on the website.

“At the public exhibitions Eneco showcased its own visualisation montages to give people an idea of how the wind farm could look from various viewpoints along the south coast with these being developed by an independent specialist consultancy which adhered to Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) methodology for developing visual montages for wind farm developments.”