The project’s 60-kilometre onshore cable route will run from Happisburgh to a National Grid substation at Necton and pass through the Reepham district to the north of the town.
 
It will cross cabling from the Hornsea Project Three offshore wind farm being built by Danish energy company Ørsted, which received development consent last December.
 
Vattenfall’s Vanguard wind farm was previously given approval by the secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy in July 2020.
 
However, the decision was quashed by a High Court order in February 2021, following concerns raised about the impact on the Norfolk countryside that would be created by the infrastructure needed to support the wind farm.
 
The legal challenge was made by Salle resident Ray Pearce, who lives near the crossing point of the planned cable route.
 
Norfolk Vanguard is one of two wind farms proposed by Vattenfall off the north Norfolk coast. The other, Norfolk Boreas, was approved in December last year.
 
Both will use the same cable corridor and construction is expected to start in 2023. Together the two projects could power more than 3.9 million homes in the UK, and Vattenfall has pledged to invest more than £15 million in community projects across Norfolk.
 
Reepham Town Council said it will closely monitor the potential impact of all the wind farm cable routes on Reepham.
 
Meanwhile, more than 80 town and parish councils across Norfolk, including Reepham and Cawston, have banded together to object to the projects, citing damage to the environment, towns and villages from the associated onshore cable works.
 
The RSPB has also raised concerns over the wind farms’ impact on local birdlife.
 
See our earlier stories:

• Another offshore wind farm gets government green light
• Equinor updates on offshore wind farm extensions
• Town council signs up to coalition advocating ‘offshore ring main’
• Vattenfall wind farm planning consent overturned