Proposal for wind park offshore from Dorset and East Devon Coast World Heritage site rejected

UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre welcomes the U.K. government's decision to reject the planning permission for the Navitus Bay Wind Park proposal offshore from the World Heritage property Dorset and East Devon Coast, often referred to as Jurassic Coast.

This decision followed a detailed application review process which took into consideration the importance of the World Heritage site inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2001, because of its outstanding combination of globally significant geological and geomorphological features. The property comprises eight sections along 155km of largely undeveloped coast. The property's geology displays approximately 185 million years of the Earth's history. It is renowned for its contribution to earth science investigations for over 300 years, helping to foster major contributions to many aspects of geology, paleontology and geomorphology.

The UK government considered that the offshore elements of the project would bring about changes in the way the World Heritage Site would be experienced or enjoyed in its surroundings and would have adverse implications for the site’s significance and its Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) basis for the site’s inscription.

The World Heritage Centre welcomes the decision that favored the conservation of designated assets of the highest significance and the Outstanding Universal Value of the World Heritage site, and that took into consideration the impact of the development project on the setting of the site and measured carefully its possible impact.