Portsmouth City Council joins opposition to Aquind interconnector

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has refused Aquind Ltd development consent

A council has formally come out against a cross-Channel power cable which has been refused permission by the government.

Aquind Ltd wants to build a £1.2bn electricity interconnector between Portsmouth and France.

The government said it is not satisfied "more appropriate alternatives" have been considered.

Portsmouth City Council has now been declared an interested party against Aquind's appeal of the decision.

Council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson said the authority would join the government in defending its decision to refuse permission for the interconnector, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Mr Vernon-Jackson said: "We will be in court to support the government and provide the local side to the case and demonstrate why it should not go ahead.

"It means that local issues will be fully considered by the court."

Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng refused permission for the cable in January, saying the company had not properly considered "more appropriate alternatives to the proposed route".

Earlier this week, Aquind Ltd confirmed that the application for permission to apply for judicial review had been granted.

"The Court has confirmed that the claim has raised arguable grounds which merit consideration at a full hearing," the company added in a statement.

It is estimated the proposed two gigawatt (GW) cable could supply up to five per cent of the UK's electricity needs, but campaigners said the choice of route would lead to environmental 'destruction', years of 'traffic chaos' and 'made no sense'.

Aquind is part-owned by Ukrainian-born British businessman Alexander Temerko

Opponents of the proposal include both the Labour MP for Portsmouth South, Stephen Morgan, the Conservative MP for Portsmouth North, Penny Mordaunt and councillors of all political parties.

The decision has been welcomed by Stop Aquind campaign co-lead Viola Langley who said: "There are a lot of issues with this project and interested party status will mean we can get a better understanding of what is happening."

Aquind - which is part-owned by Russian-born Victor Fedotov - and another of his businesses have donated £700,000 to 34 Conservative MPs since the project began, the BBC Panorama programme reported in October.

Another director, Ukrainian-born Alexander Temerko, has donated a further £700,000 to the party.

The company confirmed in March that it had launched a judicial review challenging the decision.