PRESS RELEASE

Wednesday 16th November 2011

Enjoy a Safe Walk to the Coast

Local ramblers can now enjoy a traffic-free walk from Faversham to Seasalter with the completion of an off-road route.

The final part of the circular route was completed with the opening of a half-mile stretch on land owned by London Array at its substation at Graveney to the Sportsman pub at Seasalter.

The route is part of the bigger Faversham Food Trails Initiative, led by Faversham Enterprise Partnership (FEP) and managed by Kent County Council that has seen eight new walking routes open this year, attracting an extra 23,000 walkers to the area and delivering a £200,000 boost to the local economy.

County Council Member and Leader of Swale Borough Council Andrew Bowles will officially open the path on the 15th November and said “The new path is a valuable asset to the local community and has been made available through the delivery of the County Council’s “Countryside Access Improvement Plan”. One objective of this policy is to boost the economies of our rural communities through encouraging recreational tourism, this is a great example of how this can be achieved.”

FEP manager Laurence Young said: “The route through Graveney is part of one of the Faversham food trails we created in collaboration with partners such as Kent County Council. This new section of route was key to us being able to create a safe, circular walk between Faversham and Graveney. We are very grateful to London Array for really putting themselves out to help us achieve that aim."

Matt Britton, Commercial and Operations Manager for London Array, said: “We’re delighted that by opening up a section of our land to public access we have helped to contribute to the success of a much broader scheme that brings environmental, safety and economic benefits to the area. We are keen to ensure that our presence at Graveney benefits the local community and our support for this scheme is in addition to the £850,000 package to support local environmental, educational and community projects.”

London Array is located 12 miles from Seasalter in the outer Thames Estuary and served by a sub-station at Graveney. When complete, it will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm providing enough green energy for more than 750,000 homes and displacing 1.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.

Phase One of the development is underway with construction due to be completed by the end of 2012. It includes 175 turbines, two offshore substations and four sub-sea export cables linking the substations to the shore. It will generate enough energy to power around two thirds of the homes in Kent.

To find out more about local walks, visit www.faversham.org or www.kent.gov.uk/explorekent

For more information on London Array, visit www.londonarray.com

ENDS

Pic caption: London Array’s Matt Britton, County Council Member and Leader of Swale Borough Council Andrew Bowles and Manager of the Faversham Enterprise Business Partnership Laurence Young with members of the Parish Council and Kent County Council Officers at the opening of the new footpath.

Pic caption: The group taking a walk along the new footpath.

Notes to editors:

London Array will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm when built. The scheme will be located around 20km from the Kent and Essex coasts in the outer Thames estuary. The wind farm will be connected by undersea cables to a new onshore substation, currently being built, at Cleve Hill, on the North Kent coast.

The project is being developed by a consortium comprising Dong Energy, E.ON and Masdar.

Select London Array images are available free of charge from www.londonarray.com

For more information contact:

Joanne Haddon

Stakeholder and Media Manager

07738 604337

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OR

Victoria Grigg, Maxim, 01892 513033,