The Manx government has been in contact with the developers who want to build more wind farms in the Irish Sea.

In the House of Keys yesterday Chief Minister Alfred Cannan said that concerns around the development have been raised to the applicants, as well as to UK government.

The Mona, Morgan and Morecambe windfarms would be located 20km to 30km to the south east of the island.

Concerns have been raised over the location of the proposed developments impacting the ferry routes from the island to Heysham and Liverpool.

Mr Cannan said that the engagement with the applicants of the Morgan and Morecambe project is led by the island’s territorial seas committee.

He said: ‘The territorial seas committee has supplied detailed comments back to the applicants in relation to each of the three proposals currently being pursued in the sea adjacent to the Isle of Man.

‘These detailed comments focus on the environmental and visual impacts as well as any potential impacts on the airport radar or on shipping and navigation.

‘Consideration was also given to any impacts on the potential developments within our own waters. ‘ Yet he also said that he was concerned enough about the project that he personally wrote to the Secretary of State in August 2022.

He said: ‘I expressed my concerns about the potential impacts of the Morgan and Mona offshore wind farms, and I requested that our concerns and potential solutions are given serious consideration.

He added: ‘At this stage, the applicants are effectively in a pre-application stage where they are working to better understand the issues facing the key stakeholders and where possible reach agreement to either change the parameters of what is proposed in order to overcome issues or provide some other form of mitigation.’