Representation by John Grover
- Date submitted
- 15 January 2020
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
As a resident of Friston I fully support the representations made by S.A.S.E.S and Friston Parish Council. • Overall Effect on Friston. I believe siting the substation on the doorstep of the Village and within metres of housing and an ancient church will only damage the quality of life of residents of Friston, most of whom have moved to this area for its tranquillity and natural setting. I cannot over stress how this community is suffering from the uncertainty of what is going to happen here, not only with the plans of SPR but also with the cumulative impact of having Sizewell C, Nautilus, Eurolink, Galloper and Greater Gabbard knocking at our door. “Energy Coast?” more like “Energy Village” and shame on those who allow this to go ahead without thought to the consequences for residents and for the area as a whole which will undoubtedly lose its special appeal for visitors when huge areas are laid waste to concrete, metal and industrial buildings. I ask that you take consideration of the following. • The Village of Friston has an ageing and vulnerable population, who enjoy the local amenities, such as walking, cycling and the countryside. There will be very little increase in local employment, the very large majority of inhabitants of Friston have retired and that’s why we moved here. • There we be a loss of footpaths some temporary and some forever, others will be reinstated alongside the substation on a narrow country lane where the noise will be at the highest. • The intended landscaping by SPR will take more than 15 -20 years post planting to have any mitigation effect. • The site selection was basically flawed, driven by suspect economic requirements of SPR and the easy option of National Grid. • There will be a loss of 83 acres of valuable agricultural land, in a time when we should be considering our food production. • Friston and the local area will suffer substantial light and noise pollution both during and post construction, the assessment from SPR are either “desk based” or with very selective “on ground” sensors. • There will be an extremely adverse effect on tourism to the whole area, with increase traffic, loss of tranquillity, loss of footpaths. Post completion, who will want to come to Friston with a monolithic monstrosity of the SPR/National Grid substation just yards away from our Village. A high number of houses in Friston are holiday lets, there will be a substantial loss of income to owners and to the local area. • Friston and the area is ringed by listed and historic buildings, these cannot be taken as individual but as a collective, placing the Substations in the middle will affect the total setting, taking away countless years of heritage and history, which can never be replaced. • SPR have taken very little account of the views or feelings of Friston and the local area, they have set communities against each other with their proposed site selection. They have done extremely little in mitigation for light, noise or the visual impact. The only effort to reduce the visual impact is to lower the height from 21 mts to 18 mts and have taken away any noise screening. Other onshore substations, example Rampion West Sussex have a height of only 8 mts. • There are many more issues that make this site selection a bad one, however we are only allowed approximately 500 words, SPR are allowed to submit many thousands of pages, but please listen to the people who will be seriously affected, probably for the rest of their live.