Representation by Carol Bizzell
- Date submitted
- 25 January 2020
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I support the representations being made by SASES and Friston Parish Council opposing the siting of the substations at Friston and set out below my comments: • The village has a history of flooding and cannot take any more hard standing. The village drainage infrastructure is inadequate. I live in [Redacted] which has suffered flooding and am very concerned that SPR have not taken this risk seriously. • Noise levels – Harmonic Filters are not now to be screened and tonality correction not undertaken. SPR have given no adequate information about the level of noise we will be subjected to; any noise is unacceptable in such a small peaceful village. • Light pollution – There will be 24 hour security lighting which was not mentioned at the Information Days and the impact of this is understated. • SPR has not considered a low impact design such as at Rampion in West Sussex which has nothing above 8m. • There will be severe visual harm to the landscape and the character of Friston will be lost forever. • There will be destruction of large areas of woodland and SPR have made no commitment to restore them. • Agricultural land will be lost and the total removal of 30 acres of wildlife habitat. There will be a permanent effect on birds and wildlife due to light and noise pollution and the displacement of wildlife along the cable route. • Traffic impact - the local roads were not built for, and never intended for, heavy loads and simply will not cope. To bring these roads up to a standard to be used by construction traffic will cause immeasurable disruption over many years and the impact on local people is unimaginable. • Traffic routes – Mill Road has no pavement; Grove Road has no pavement and is already heavily used as a cut-through. These local roads are not suitable for heavy construction traffic and will be a hazard to walkers and cyclists. If drivers seek alternative routes in the locality, they in turn will become rat-runs. Traffic flows and speeds have not been sufficiently addressed. • The impact on emergency vehicles has not been adequately considered and the Sizewell Evacuation Plan has been ignored, putting lives in danger. • Jobs and Tourism – the area relies heavily on the tourism industry which will be damaged irreparably from these developments. There will be no jobs created from the onshore development. • The landfall at Thorpeness poses severe risk from the fragility of the cliffs and the proposed cable corridor passes far too close to residential properties. • I regularly use the footpaths in and around Friston and some will be permanently closed and 26 other Rights of Way temporarily closed for unspecified periods. An unattractive alternative footpath is proposed alongside Grove Road; next to the noise of the substations. • The cumulative impact of the SPR substations, together with the proposed National Grid Ventures Interconnectors for Nautilus and Eurolink, and expansion of the offshore windfarms of Galloper and Greater Gabbard will destroy the area of the Suffolk Coast which will NEVER recover.