Council rules out legal challenge to “fundamentally flawed” offshore wind transmission assets decision

The local authority, however, said it still considered the decision to grant development consent for the Morgan and Morecambe Offshore Wind Farms Transmission Assets on 14 September, 2026 as “fundamentally flawed”.

Fylde claimed said the decision departed from “key findings of the Examining Authority’s report”, and provided “no assurance that the benefits claimed for the project will ever be realised, particularly given the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the financial viability of the Morgan scheme”.

The project comprises transmission assets associated with the Morgan Offshore Wind Project and the Morecambe Offshore Windfarm including: offshore export cables, onshore landfall infrastructure, onshore export cables, onshore substations, onshore grid connection cables and circuit breaker compounds, and other related onshore infrastructure.

The council said: “Throughout the examination process, Fylde Council set out clear, evidence-based objections about the scale of harm to Fylde’s countryside, the impact on local communities and the weaknesses in the applicants’ case. Many of these concerns were recognised by the Examining Authority, which recommended refusal.

“The council remains firmly of the view that this cabling corridor represents an unacceptable and avoidable burden on Fylde.”

Immediately following the announcement, the council sought specialist external legal advice to explore steps to challenge the decision.

However, it acknowledged the advice was clear that the legal threshold for challenge was not met, and any attempt to litigate would expose the council, and therefore local taxpayers, to potentially “severe and uncapped financial liabilities”.

Describing the decision as a “bitter disappointment” for Fylde, Council Leader Karen Buckley said: “Our representations persuaded the independent Planning Inspectorate to recommend that the application be refused. The Secretary of State has overridden that expert judgment, ignoring the harm to Fylde’s coast, countryside and people’s livelihoods. She ruled that expanding renewable energy provides ‘very special circumstances’ that outweigh the Green Belt damage and ‘all other harms’ caused by the project.

“We are angry, residents are angry and parish councils are angry. We wanted to fight the decision and explored every option but the legal advice is clear: a challenge by the Council would expose taxpayers to unlimited and potentially very substantial costs. Others with capped legal protections may still pursue a claim.”

Lottie Winson