A ‘virtual site visit’ is being recommended before a decision is made on allowing electric cables to be put in under the beach and sand dunes at Freshwater West.

A planning application to install underground HVDC electricity cables from the mean low water mark at Freshwater West beach to the National Park boundary near Neath Farm is on the authoirtu’s development management committee agenda next week.

The cables would stretch across 3.2km of Pembrokeshire Coast National Park controlled land to Pembrokeshire County Council’s planning boundary before extending to a converter station located near to the existing Pembroke substation.

A public consultation on the Greenlink Interconnector Limited plan to link electricity cable between Pembrokeshire and Ireland was held last year following the submission of a Marine Licence application.

Horizontal directional drilling will be used to install the cable with a temporary landfill compound created at the beach.

A report to development control on June 10 states that the application is an environmental impact assessment development, classed as major and of public interest, therefore a site visit is recommended.

“Given the current situation with COVID-19 it is proposed that the site visit will be undertaken through video conferencing facilities to provide members a virtual site visit experience,” the report adds.