GOVERNMENT bosses yesterday denied insisting two wind-farms should be built together off the North Wales coast. A turbine campaigner claimed the Department of Trade and Industry was pressing energy company npower to go ahead with the two offshore schemes. One scheme would see 30 turbines at Rhyl Flats, the other 200 at Gwynt y Mor, 12 miles out to sea. Kinmel Bay-based Dr Stuart Anderson said the company was being forced to develop both together. But last night the DTI denied it insisted on the joint scheme, and said it was a commercial decision for npower. Npower, which runs the North Hoyle windfarm off Prestatyn, was given planning permission for the 30-turbine Rhyl Flats, six miles off Abergele. But it was waiting for the go-ahead to its plans for the controversial 200-turbine Gwynt y Mor development. The company made no reference in its Gwynt y Mor brochure to the Rhyl Flats scheme, which, said Dr Anderson, would be incorporated into the larger development. "I have information from Crown Estates that it is DTI pressure that is obliging npower to reconsider the Rhyl Flats scheme against their own better judgment," he said.. "The end result of both scheme could be considerably more 'clutter' than there needs to be," he said.. Conwy councillor Dr Anderson said he planned to raise the matter at tonight's meeting of the council's environment scrutiny committee to get the DTI's position clear on the joint scheme. He also wrote to Vale of Clwyd MP Chris Ruane urging him to press Welsh secretary Peter Hain to intervene. Dr Anderson was one of the movers behind plans for an offshore tidal energy scheme which, he said, would complement the windfarms. A DTI spokesman said: "The DTI has not insisted on the development of the Rhyl Flats offshore windfarm. "Consent has been given and it is now a commercial decision for npower." Meanwhile, there was growing opposition in Llandudno to the Gwynt y Mor scheme, with action group Save Our Scenery claiming it would harm the tourist industry. | 
