A campaign group against a proposed windfarm off the South Coast have created videos and still images of how they say it will really look.

Challenge Navitus say their artist imprssions are a ‘more accurate’ portrayal of
how the revised Navitus Bay Wind Park plans than the photo montages produced by the company behind the scheme.

This is denied by Navitus Bay Development Ltd (NBDL), who say the Challenge Navitus images are ‘inconsistent’ with the industry guidelines.

The Challenge Navitus videos, which can be found by clicking here, aim to depict how the proposed ‘biggest
windfarm in the world’ would look from the Isle of Wight, Durlston, Swanage and Hengistbury Head.

Last month a series of public exhibitions were held across Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, on the latest plans – which NBDL describe as smaller and further out to sea.

Dr Andrew Langley, a scientist in
mathematical modelling, who computed the latest visualisations and is a founder
of Challenge Navitus, believes the changes are minor.

He said: ‘The changes did little to reduce
the visual impact of this scheme.

‘For example, in
producing our new videos, we had to remove only 16 turbines from the array of
171 we showed previously.’

He added: ‘Early on we realised
that NBDL’s panoramas of the
windfarm did not give a realistic impression to many people, even though their
format followed the industry’s current ‘best practice’.’

Dr Langley believes the scale of the photo montages should be around 60% bigger than the current guidance
would give and said
the ‘best practice’ guidance is
now under review.

However Navitus Bay project director Mike Unsworth argues that the Challenge Navitus images are ‘inconsistent’ with the industry guidelines.

He said Navitus Bay’s visualisations have
been produced by independent specialist consultancy LDA Design, which
has an established track record of producing photomontages for a number
of offshore wind projects across the UK.

He added: ‘Challenge Navitus have based their new visuals on
a University of Stirling report, published in May 2012, which ‘suggests’ that images produced at a focal length of 70 – 80mm offer an
improved representation of landscape scale and depth rather than the
recognised industry standard of 50mm.

‘This is an isolated report and its
findings have not been adopted as acceptable guidance by the landscape
profession.

‘The Challenge Navitus visuals are presented with
considerable vertical cropping of the image and a horizontal panning,
both of which reduce visual context in a way that is inconsistent with
SNH guidance.

‘Navitus Bay has met with Challenge Navitus to discuss
the visuals of the project and is committed to maintaining an open
dialogue going forward.’

View high res photo montages on the Challenge Navitus website.

To find out more about the proposed Navitus Bay Wind Park visit www.navitusbaywindpark.co.uk