Cameron: 'Thousands of jobs' to be created in Norway energy deal

Thousands of jobs will be created and billions of pounds invested into the UK energy sector thanks to an agreement on closer co-operation with Norway, David Cameron said.

David Cameron has met Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. Credit: Sang Tan/PA Wire

Mr Cameron was speaking as he arrived in Oslo for talks with his Norwegian counterpart Jens Stoltenberg on a two-day visit which will also take in discussions with energy companies from both sides of the North Sea.

A new UK-Norway energy partnership will deliver closer co-operation between the two countries on affordable long-term gas supply, as well as two-way investment in oil and gas exploration and the development of renewable technologies, said Mr Cameron.

David Cameron said "Affordable, secure energy from trusted and reliable partners is critical to this and there is no stronger energy partnership than between Britain and Norway.

Tomorrow we will take this vital relationship to the next level with a new UK-Norway energy partnership.

This will mean more collaboration on affordable long-term gas supply, more reciprocal investment in oil and gas and renewables, and - underpinning all of this - a set of major new business deals creating thousands of new jobs and adding billions to our economies"

Group opposes Bronte moors turbines

Campaigners against a plan to build giant wind turbines on moors associated with the Bronte sisters are making a final attempt to convince councillors and planners to ditch the proposal.

People living close to Thornton Moor, west of Bradford, are hoping to stop the development in its tracks at a meeting next week. The moor is a couple of miles from the famous parsonage at Haworth where the Bronte sisters and their family lived, and which is now preserved as a museum.

Thornton Moor Windfarm Action Group
hopes to convince councillors
to ditch plans to install four wind turbines
on the Bronte landscape

Experts say their work - including Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights - was heavily influenced by the moorland landscape of the area. The Bronte Way footpath also runs straight across Thornton Moor.

Developers want to build four turbines next to the route of the footpath. Councillors are due to meet on Wednesday to decide whether to allow the first stage of the plan - a 200ft high wind monitoring mast.

Anthea Orchard, who lives in nearby Denholm Gate and chairs the Thornton Moor Windfarm Action Group, said the Bronte connection is only part of their objection.

She said: "It's too close to a Site of Special Scientific Interest and it's too close to other important sites. It's also too close to many houses in the area. Quite simply, the site is totally inappropriate and we're determined to fight it."

Phil Dyke, development director at developer Banks Renewables, said the test mast would have minimal visual impact as it was so slender.

Mr Dyke told the Bradford Telegraph & Argus: "World populations are growing and many historically less-affluent countries are now yielding greater financial strength.

"These global issues mean that in the near future the UK will have to outbid even more competitors to secure supplies of fossil fuels, forcing prices higher.

"Last week's panic-buying of petrol may be a foretaste of a world that is unable to transfer to more sustainable energy sources."