Spurn Head is a fragile finger of land that juts out into such a dangerous part of the North Sea that Britain's only full time lifeboat crew is on permanent standby at its windswept tip.
 Spurn Head is a focus of busy shipping lanes |
A scramble to the top of one of the sand dunes that run down its narrow spine easily reveals why this peninsula on the north bank of the Humber estuary demands such special attention.
At any time of the day or night dozens of vessels from inshore fishing boats and cross channel ferries to supertankers can be seen picking their way through one of the busiest sea lanes in the world.
Just over the horizon there is an added potential hazard from a string of giant gas and oil rigs.
Off shore wind farms
It is here, five miles off Spurn's beaches, that the Government has said it wants to see dozens of huge off shore wind generators built.
"It is just about the worst possible position," Grimsby trawler skipper Graham Hall tells Len Tingle on Politics Show for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
"Just look at the amount of traffic within a couple of miles of here".
 Skipper Graham Hall: Wind farms are a danger to life and livelihood |
The radar screen in the wheelhouse of the Jubilee Quest shows dozens of vessels are passing the Humber Estuary.
These safety concerns raised by East Coast fishermen are being investigated by the Coast Guard Service.
It's report is expected to be delivered to Government ministers later this month.
"Clearly, any extra structures built in the sea increases risks of all kinds," says Professor Mike Elliott, a Hull University marine biologist.
Balance of risks?
Professor Elliott is an acknowledged international expert on the effects of building and operating off-shore wind farms.
As consultants to the developers his team of researchers have been monitoring existing wind farms off the Norwegian and Dutch coasts.
"We have to balance that risk both to shipping and the local ecology against the benefits of clean, renewable energy. My view is that it is a risk worth taking."
The section of North Sea off the coast between the Humber to the Wash is one of three areas around Britain chosen to site 100s of off-shore wind turbines.
They will be grouped in "wind farm" clusters of up to 60.
Construction in one of the other areas, off the Thames, has already started.
But Chief Executive of the North Sea Fishermen's association Barry Deas says this is another example of the Government making rapid decisions without caring about the implications for his hard pressed industry.
"We are not against wind generators out at sea," he says." But we think this is not the place to build them".
Politics Show
What are your views? Let us know what you think. WatchPolitics Show, on Sunday 26 September, at 13.30pm.
Join presenter Cathy Killick for The Politics Show on BBC One on Sundays at 12.30pm.
Disclaimer: The BBC may edit your comments and cannot guarantee that all emails will be published.
One-Minute World News 
News services
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
