Walney Extension Community Fund Public Consultation

In October 2015 Orsted (formerly DONG Energy) decided to construct an extension to the operational Walney offshore wind farm. The extension will be located in the Irish Sea, around 19km WSW off the Walney Island coast in Cumbria. To find out more about the project development itself, please click here

Orsted committed to providing a Community Fund (the Fund), worth approximately £600,000 each year for the lifetime of the Project. GrantScape was appointed to carry out local consultation to seek views from all stakeholders on how the Fund should be set up.

The purpose of the consultation was to:

• Ensure local people and local groups had the opportunity to participate in how the Fund is established
• Clarify the areas or ‘funding zones’ where the Fund will be spent
• Identify the types of projects the Fund will support
• Identify the size of grants the Fund will support

The consultation process had three stages:

1. Online survey

The first step of the consultation process was an online public survey that ran for three months during the summer of 2015. Almost 400 people completed the survey and a summary of the survey findings is available, click below to view it:

2. Meetings with key stakeholders

The second step involved GrantScape consulting with key stakeholders including Local Authorities and voluntary and community infrastructure organisations to discuss the Fund in more detail.

3. Public exhibitions

In February 2016, GrantScape held a series of local public exhibitions for anyone that wanted to know more about the Fund. Events were held in Cumbria (Grange-Over-Sands, Millom and Barrow-in-Furness) and Lancashire (Lancaster and Fleetwood). Hundreds of people attended and were able to discuss project ideas and provide their views relating to the proposed criteria for the Fund.

Information gathered throughout the consultation process has been used to shape the Fund.

The Fund will be reviewed each year and may change in the future.

Questions and Contacts

If you have any questions relating to the Consultation, please call GrantScape on 01908 247634 or email wecf@grantscape.wpdev3.com

For ongoing updates relating to the Fund, please follow us on twitter @GrantScape1