Government approves offshore wind farm power cable despite its own planners recommending refusal, clearing 480 megawatts for Morecambe

The offshore wind farm power cable planners recommended refusing

The government approved the power cable for two offshore wind farms, Morgan and Morecambe, on 14 September 2026, months after the Examining Authority, the panel of inspectors that examines a project like this one before a minister decides, recommended refusing this offshore wind farm power cable. The panel spent 6 months on the case and concluded the loss of protected Green Belt land, land shielded from most new building under English planning law, outweighed the benefit of more renewable power. Baroness Curran, the minister who decided on behalf of the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, approved the project anyway, finding the harms had shrunk enough to count as very special circumstances, the legal threshold a developer must clear to build in the Green Belt at all.

What the cable connects

The Morecambe offshore wind farm has a nominal capacity of 480 megawatts, up to 35 fixed bottom turbines standing about 30 kilometers off the Lancashire coast, connecting to the National Grid at Penwortham. The developer, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, which took full ownership in March 2025, says the project can power more than 500,000 households. Morecambe already holds a separate consent for its generation equipment, granted 1 December 2025, so the 14 September 2026 decision covers only the cable and onshore connection works. Commercial operation is targeted for 2029 to 2030. The developer frames the project against the 43 to 50 gigawatt target the government has set for offshore wind by 2030.

A shorter construction deadline, and an unresolved partner

The consent gives 5 years to start most of the construction, not the 7 years the developer asked for. Morecambe alone received a longer, 7 year window for its land powers, in case construction later needs to coordinate with Morgan. Morgan is the more uncertain half of this pairing. The original developer for Morgan withdrew earlier in 2026, and the Crown Estate is now retendering the site. The share of the cable serving Morgan cannot begin construction until a new developer secures a Crown Estate lease and the Secretary of State separately confirms construction may start. The power to force landowners to sell was removed from the Morgan portion of the consent entirely, because ministers were concerned about exposing landowners to years of uncertainty with no confirmed developer in place.

A recommendation that took 228 days to overturn

The application was submitted on 21 October 2024 and accepted for examination 28 days later, on 18 November 2024. The Examining Authority recommended refusing it on 29 January 2026, 437 days after accepting the case, a gap this article calculates from the dates the government published, not a figure the government states itself. The Secretary of State then took 228 days, by the same calculation, to reach the opposite conclusion, approving the project on 14 September 2026. This was the 113th energy application out of 181 the Planning Inspectorate has examined to date under the Planning Act 2008, completed within the statutory timescale the law sets.

Local opposition, and one unverified cost claim

Residents, local councils and community groups opposed the project throughout the examination, according to Fylde MP Andrew Snowden. The campaign group Fylde Says No says the approved route could cost up to 520 million pounds more than an alternative it considers credible, a figure attributed to the group alone, since no government or developer source confirms or disputes it.

I am as stunned as I am angry by this decision.

Andrew Snowden, Fylde MP. Source 4.

Today's decision is a profound disappointment for the communities of the Fylde who have spent years making their concerns heard.

Fylde Says No, the local campaign group that opposed the route. Source 4.