Controversial plans for a wind farm at the mouth of the Tees revealed serious faults in planning laws, a Teesside MP claimed today.
The offshore scheme intended to be a mile off Redcar beach is not subject to the same safeguards and regulations as similar projects on land.
So Redcar MP Vera Baird today demanded that onshore and offshore planning procedures were brought into line.
Her concerns were fuelled by Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks after she questioned him in the Commons.
The minister explained that the proposed Redcar wind farm would require "a suite of statutory consents" involving the Electricity Act, the Food and Environment Protection Act and the Coast Protection Act.
As a result, Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson would be responsible for part of the decision, with Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Margaret Beckett responsible for other parts.
Vera Baird fears the public would find it much more difficult to discover just how and why decisions were made over the contentious windfall proposals.
She also claimed that under current arrangements any arguments by objectors might be countered by claims which were untrue or misleading but that the objector would not be able to set the record straight.
"This scheme is going to have a huge impact on Redcar and we should be allowed to know how decisions are taken and whether the views of local people were or were not properly taken into account," said the Labour MP.
"We don't even know whether any reasons will be made public, unlike a public inquiry where the inspector has to explain each point."
Ms Baird said it was time the law on offshore plans was made more transparent.
