Representation by Middleton cum Fordley Parish Council (Middleton cum Fordley Parish Council)
- Date submitted
- 21 January 2020
- Submitted by
- Parish councils
Representation giving notice of interest in, and concerns regarding: The East Anglia ONE North Offshore Windfarm Development Consent Order Application ref: EN010077 We are deeply dismayed, not to say alarmed, that this application is being submitted for consideration with so little reference to, or allowance being made for, the combined impact of some six other projects planned in the very area covered by this DCO. There seems to be no regard being paid to the cumulative disruption that will be caused to the daily life of local residents, in terms of noise, air and light pollution, delays to all forms of traffic (including the emergency services). Nor is there due recognition of the damage and destruction of the adjacent AONB and SSSI with their fragile environmental and ecological aspects and the inevitable erosion of this unique region’s tourism. With several further windfarm developments, their associated National Grid infrastructures , the NG Nautilus project and the proposed new twin nuclear power station complex at Sizewell (SZC) all envisaged to overlap in part or even run consecutively, the various specific transport movement figures quoted in this particular application are all but meaningless. And the effect, not only to people living on or around the HGV routes shown, but also the delays to deliveries of the constructors’ own materials, could well be devastating. The lack of “joined-up thinking” in this process is spectacular at all levels. Back in the 1980s, a new road, providing direct access to Sizewell from the A12, was planned to protect local communities from the problems of construction of Sizewell B. But it never happened. With all the current proposals, the need for that very road, taking its original path (D2 as it was then labelled; EDF’s misguidedly dismissed route W today), is now overwhelming. We beg to question whether the piecemeal construction of onshore facilities for each new windfarm is really necessary or appropriate. The Dutch solution of each farm being joined by an offshore Ring Main, and landfall thus limited to fewer, or even singular, locations makes absolute sense, especially when the East Suffolk coastline’s beauty and fragility is considered. With existing onshore windfarm infrastructure already existent at nearby Bawdsey, what prevents the new farms’ supply being added to that? Or select an area already spoiled, for example the brown field sites alongside the rail tracks at Manningtree?