Hartlepool is ideally placed to take advantage of opportunities offered in offshore wind industry, said Councillor Christopher Akers-Belcher responding to question submitted at a full council meeting.
Resident Steve Latimer claim after failing to realize Tees Valley Regeneration’s £1billion Victoria Harbour project in 2010, the Local Enterprise Partnerships said it will focus on bringing offshore wind industry to Hartlepool.
“Since then the town has lost out to Leith in securing a major turbine manufacturing facility, we have seen a Hartlepool-based company, Able, establish a major turbine centre on Humberside and now Redcar has secured itself as the base for the 2,000- turbine Dogger Bank offshore wind farm,” said Latimer .
However, Coun Akers-Belcher, who heads the council’s Finance and Policy Committee said “The industry has stated that if the North Sea offshore wind sector develops as originally intended there is a requirement for several major bases along the coast and Hartlepool is well placed in terms of location, infrastructure, supply chain and workforce supply.”
He believes Hartlepool is on a good path to take advantage of expanding offshore wind industry.
Offshore WIND Staff; Image: teesvalleyunlimited