Contact Us: via email and to register for updates cowfoldvrampion@gmail.com
The Rampion proposal is now with the Planning Inspectorate
Rampion's Application for Development Consent has been accepted by the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) and now enters the Pre-Examination phase.
PINS have decided, on behalf of the Secretary of State, that the application meets the standards required to be accepted for examination (Pre-Examination Stage and Examination Stages).
The main categories that the Planning Inspectorate will look at for project as a whole, not just Cowfold are:
Local Impact - The proposed new wind farm is 2.5 times the height of Rampion 1 so very visible from the South Downs National Park, the cable route damage etc
Due Diligence - are Rampion’s claims accurate and justify the negative impacts of the construction.
Reasonable alternatives - for the wind farm location, the cable route and the substation.
In the next stage (Examination), if you have registered, you will have the opportunity to expand on your views if you want and to participate in the on-line question and answer process and even attend and speak at issue specific hearings.
Please don’t give up; there is still everything to be gained by fighting. Nothing has been decided yet!
Register here for updates from the Planning Inspectorate (PI)
Click here to go to the Planning Inspectorate website where you can find out more.
If you live, work or are just passing through Cowfold and are going to be affected by the added congestion and traffic control measures resulting from the proposed construction of a 3 storey sub- station and it's associated infrastructure.
WSCC County Councillor sarah.payne@westsussex.gov.uk
WSCC rampion2@westsussex.gov.uk
Horsham District Council Planning Officer Matthew.Porter@horsham.gov.uk
District Councillors lynn.lambert@horsham.gov.uk and joanne.knowles@horsham.gov.uk
Cowfold Parish Council clerk@cowfold-pc.gov.uk
Copy to us at cowfoldvrampion@gmail.com
Rampion's Proposals for Cowfold
If you live, work or are just passing through Cowfold and are going to be affected by the added congestion and traffic control measures.
We are a group of Cowfold residents who only found out about the Rampion 2 proposals, to build a new substation to connect to the main one at Wineham, at the very end of what has supposed to have been a two-year public consultation, which closed in November 2022.
The consultation was to focus particularly on the communities most likely to be affected i.e., those close to the offshore windfarm, the cable route, and especially the substation sites under consideration.
We discovered that there was widespread ignorance amongst Cowfold residents of what is about to happen; almost nobody feels that they have been consulted. Rampion are supposed to have ‘fully engaged’ with all residents within a 1km distance of the cable routes and 3km of the possible substation sites. Much of Cowfold is actually within 3km of all the substation sites they considered, yet we have heard nothing, or not before it is too late to alter their choices or make our concerns about these choices understood.
What is proposed?
In order to help meet the green energy demands of this country, Rampion want to build another offshore windfarm and connect it to the main substation at Wineham via a cable. This will come via a smaller substation where the voltage will be increased to the 400 kv required to connect to the main substation. There is already a Rampion 1 substation adjacent to the bigger Wineham substation. The substation is the only onshore part of the project which will remain above ground when it is finished. It is projected that the work will take up to 6 years to complete.
This is not the sort of planning issue to be dealt with by Horsham district council. It is a National Infrastructure project, like HS2, and as such is dealt with by a national planning body, the Planning Inspectorate (PI). The Planning Inspectorate's explanation of the process can be found here in their letter to a Cowfold resident together with their links to further information.
During the examination stage focus will be on what effect this proposal may have on the local communities and whether this is acceptable, or whether these effects can be sufficiently mitigated to allow the plan to go ahead.
Obviously, it would have been better to get these issues out during the initial consultation phase, when they were choosing locations, but as Cowfold was unaware of the plans that was not possible!
Rampion’s substation proposals would have a considerable long-term impact on all of us in Cowfold.
The proposals include the following:
A 3-storey substation covering 14.5 acres. This is 1.5 times bigger than the village playing fields and nearly twice the size of the substation on Wineham Lane.
Temporary traffic lights for 6-8 years on the A272 by the Oakendene Industrial Estate
Over 8,000 HGVs – one every 5 minutes! (108 return journeys every day).
Thousands of extra ancillary vehicles.
Spronketts Lane and Picts Lane (both single-track) are likely to be cut-throughs to avoid traffic jams on the A272. This would be incredibly dangerous for all involved. Kent Street is proposed as an access route, however being a single-track lane with mud verges and a narrow bridge, it is totally unsuitable.
The proposals do not take account of: the existing traffic situation, the environmental impact, the high level of accidents along the A272 (over 50 in the past 5 years), and worsening pollution due to the stationary traffic.
Read More here
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