August 24, 2016
England

Wind farm construction causes more sleepless nights

Shoreham Herald | 23 August 2016 | www.shorehamherald.co.uk

Nighttime noise from the construction of the offshore wind farm continues to disturb residents along the coast.

Residents as far afield as Rustington and Shoreham complained of hearing banging at night back in July, with project owner E.ON confirming the wind farm was the source of the noise and apologising.

However, it seems the problem has persisted, with residents in Shoreham kept awake last night as piling work continues on the wind farm site.

“While most residents can accept some daytime noise during major infrastructure projects the levels at night are totally unacceptable”, said Joss Loader, Adur councillor for Marine ward and chairman of Shoreham Beach Residents’ Association.

“I’ve had many complaints, including one from a man whose partner is seriously ill and was unable to sleep last night”, she added.

The wind farm site is located eight miles off the Sussex coast, between Brighton and Worthing. Construction of the foundations began in February after nearly six years in development.

A spokesperson for E.ON said:

“There are many factors and technical constraints that dictate when we conduct our work including weather, ecological reasons and safety considerations for our colleagues and contractors. This means during different phases of the development our offshore construction team has to work 24 hours a day.

“We would like to reassure people that under most circumstances the piling has not been, and is not expected to be, audible from within homes along the coast.

“The short spell of warm weather we’ve experienced recently has meant, on a very small number of occasions, local residents have heard low ambient background noise.”

The spokesperson apologised for the inconvenience and said the company would continue to do its best to ensure that any impact on the local community is kept to a minimum.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2016/08/24/wind-farm-construction-causes-more-sleepless-nights/