RECENT DEVELOPMENTS ON
NEWPORT'S URBAN-RURAL FRINGE

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"Leading wind turbine manufacturer locates on Newport’s urban-rural fringe"

Photo 1  An aerial view of Newport and the Medina Estuary.

Newport is situated at the head of the tidal section of the Medina Estuary. This aerial photograph looks over Newport northward beyond the urban-rural fringe to Cowes at the mouth of the River Medina, where it flows into the Solent. The area on the urban-rural fringe, west of the Medina Estuary, was still under sheep pasture when this photograph was taken in 1997.

Photo 2  Entrance to the St Cross Business Park.

The agricultural land on the northern edge of the town has been identified as an employment site by the Isle of Wight planning department. The land has been sold to a developer who has gained planning permission to establish a Business Park on the former sheep pasture. The Isle of Wight Council, the South-east England Development Agency (SEEDA) and English Partnerships, a government funding body providing incentives for businesses to locate in development areas.

Photo 3  An aerial view of the upper Medina Estuary looking south towards Newport.

The photograph, taken in the summer of 1999, shows rapid change taking place in the former sheep pasture on Newport’s urban-rural fringe, with a new white factory and the fields excavated in preparation for further developments.

Photo 4  The SP Systems factory seen from the air.

Structural Polymer (SP) Systems, one of the world leaders in composite materials, was the first company to be attracted into the Business Park in 1998. The company chose to move from the site in Cowes to the outskirts of Newport, despite having attractive relocation offers from The Development Board of Rural Wales, Dorset County Council and from Spain. The company imports glass fibre from Brazil for the manufacture of composite material, and chemicals from India and South Korea for the manufacture of resins.

The market for composites is diverse, and includes Formula 1 cars, racing yachts, lifeboats, the stage sets for the band U2, light aircraft and the offshore oil and gas rigs. However, the biggest demand for this lightweight, resilient material comes from the European wind turbine industry.

Photo 5  Construction of a giant factory for the manufacture of wind turbine blades gets underway.

Early in 2000 construction work got underway for a vast 13,000 square metre, £13 million building, on land adjacent to SP Systems in the Business Park. The Danish-owned company, Aerolaminates, a leading manufacturer of wind turbine blades, made the decision to move out of its restrictive site at Totton on Southampton Water, and to relocate to the St Cross Business Park.

The company, in one of the fastest growth industries in the world, has an annual turnover of £30 million. The plant was completed in the summer of 2000 and is capable of producing blades of up to 35 metres.

Photo 6  Site of the wind turbine Marine Transfer Facility (MTF), before construction.

The decision to relocate to the Isle of Wight was determined by the locational advantages of the St Cross Business Park where sufficient land was available to construct a factory of the necessary dimensions and where their main supplier of composite materials would be next door. However, the main locational advantage of the site is the proximity of a waterfront from where the giant blades can be barged out from the plant for onward export.

The Marine Transfer Facility (MTF) necessary for transporting out blades of between 25 meters and 50 metres would require the removal a 50 square metres of inter-tidal mudflats from the upper Medina Estuary and pile driving steel tubes12 metres into the mud.

The Medina Estuary is part of the Solent Estuarine System which supports internationally important numbers of 12 species of waders and wildfowl, and nationally important numbers of 15 species of waterbird. The entire Solent complex is interlinked and small flocks of many of these species come into the Medina to feed and roost.

The entire inter-tidal area of the Medina Estuary was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1995, in recognition of the important estuarine habitats and associated fauna and flora.

In 1998 the Solent and Southampton Water was classified both as a Special Protection Area (SPA) under an EU Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds and as a candidate Special Area of Conservation (SAC) under the EU Directive on the Conservation of Habitats. The area also qualifies as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention because it regularly supports over 50,000 waterfowl and more than 1% of the UK overwintering population of 8 species of key waterfowl.

For more information on the Solent and Southampton water SPA, SAC and the Ramsar site, see The Solent Forum web site.

The Medina Estuary is included in the Solent and Southampton Water SPA, SAC and Ramsar site where an international obligation is placed upon the UK Government to take steps to avoid any ‘significant pollution, disturbance or deterioration of the habitats’.

The SAC designation identifies saltmarshes and inter-tidal mudflats as important habitats that need to be protected from interference by human activities. Within the Medina Estuary there are 8.1 hectares of saltmarsh and 63.4 hectares of inter-tidal mud to mean high water.

Qualifying species of waterfowl for the SPA includes Dark-bellied brent geese, Teal, Black-tailed godwit and Ringed plovers. The Black-tailed godwits regularly feed in the winter months in the vicinity of the site of the MTF on the Medina Estuary, the other species feeding in the area during harsh winter weather. Qualifying migratory species include the Common tern and the Sandwich tern that regularly feed in the upper estuary in the summer months a high water.

Aware of the sensitivity of the site, Aerolaminates employed consultants to gather together all the available records of waterbird species and numbers using the upper Medina Estuary, and to extend the data set by carrying out further survey work.

English Nature advised that a full Environmental Impact Assessment was necessary prior to permission being granted to construct the MTF to accommodate the barges.

Photo 7  The first piles are driven into the estuary mud for the MTF with a solar powered boat passing in front the MTF..

English Nature was reassured that the plan for the MTF would not adversely affect the integrity of the European conservation area once a series of conditions were imposed by the Local Planning Authority. These included:

a.       restricting construction activity to the summer months to keep disturbance to feeding waterbirds to the minimum.

b.       minimising the disturbance to feeding waterbirds by the presence of the barge by restricting the barge movement to high water periods

c.       ensuring that members of the public, as well as the Aerolaminates’ workforce, do not have access to the MTF when not in use at low water, to prevent disturbance to feeding waterbirds

d.       implementing a monitoring programme during the winter months over a five year period to assess the ongoing impact of the development on the wintering waterbirds

Photo 8  50 square metres of inter-tidal mud is removed to create a waterway into the MTF.

The Environment Agency (EA) was concerned that the removal of 50 square metres of intertidal mud would have an unacceptable affect on the feeding grounds of the wintering waterbirds, following a survey which confirmed that the mud in the area was rich in invertebrate species favoured by these protected birds.

Photo 9 The dredged mud is removed by boat and dumped east of the Nab Tower, off the eastern coast of the Island.

Permission was eventually granted for construction of the MTF to proceed, once assurances had been given to the EA that mitigation measures would be made to release additional inter-tidal feeding areas downstream by removing a number of mooring buoys.

Photo 10  A lorry with the first blades off the production line prepares to set off.

Manufacturing of wind turbine blades began in the summer 2000. These blades were taken off the Island by lorry while construction work continued on the MTF.

Photo 11 The barge named ‘Bladerunner 1’ tests out the new facility, with the Medina Valley Centre in the background.

On the 8^th December 2000 the MTF was officially opened by Isle of Wight Council dignitaries and the senior management team of Aerolaminates.

Photo 12 The hoist moves a turbine blade down a runway to the MTF.

Photo 13 The hoist places a turbine blade onto the barge.

Twice a week, six wind turbine blades are loaded onto the barge at high water and transported across the Solent and into Southampton Water for transferring onto larger craft for export. The major customers include Spanish, German and Japanese wind farms.

The barge has a maximum loaded draft of just 0.5 metres and is highly manoeuverable.

Photo 14 Rowing boat provides scale for the size of Bladerunner.

Future developments.

The Isle of Wight County Press reported on 8th December 2000 that Aerolaminates has submitted a planning application seeking permission to erect a 40 high anemometer at Wellow, to the west of the Island, with a view to creating a wind technology park that may produce 10 – 15% of the Island’s electricity. This anemometer is now in place and recording data.

If you would like further information on this subject, please contact Keith Marston