Representation by Briony Sones
- Date submitted
- 26 January 2020
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I fully endorse and support all the points raised in the SASES and Friston Parish Council’s representations. I am strongly against the Scottish Power Renewables (SPR) plans for the onshore projects and am deeply concerned about the devastating impact it will have on the village of Friston and the surrounding Suffolk Coastal area. My major concerns are: • Transport and Traffic • Noise and light pollution • Impact on Heritage and onshore ecology • Human impact • Socio-economic impact • Flooding I would like to start by stating that I believe SPR have NOT provided adequate consultation or documentation. Some of my concerns include: • Failure to inform local residents in early planning stages • Misinformation and misrepresentation in planning documents • Defective process in site selection • Lack of consideration for personal impact • SPR ‘s mismanagement of previous projects • No information about National Grid work I believe that SPR have not fully considered the impact the increased traffic will make on the local community, visitors and holidaymakers. Our small, quiet lanes are not appropriate for the size and quantity of vehicles, which will be needed to bring materials, heavy plant and workers on a daily basis. There are key safety issues for walkers, cyclists, emergency vehicles and people wanting to get on with their everyday lives. Tourism is Suffolk Coastal’s primary area of employment and people will not want to visit an area where roads are filled with construction traffic and queues are backed up along the A12 and other roads accessing prime tourist locations. In addition noise and dust from roads and construction sites will affect the peace and quiet which people visit this area for. An impact on tourism is an impact on all local businesses including hotels, holiday rentals, restaurants, café’s and pubs, retail, heritage sites, building trades, service providers (catering, gardening cleaning, taxis, local food producers etc). This is taking away peoples’ livelihoods and quality of life. Impact on our Heritage coast, onshore ecology, rural landscape and AONB will be devastating. The building works will cause disruption and displacement of many bird and wildlife species both along the cable route and on the 30 + acres substation site. The plans indicate the substation area will reach to the gardens of residential properties and as close as 25m from the Grade 2* listed Church and other Grade 2 listed cottages. The construction noise will intrude on every day lives for several years and the long-term humming from the Substation will permanently destroy the peace and tranquility of the villagers and holiday makers. The harmful impact of these projects is twofold – in the short term the disruption to this fragile and unique area of Suffolk countryside, coast and economy will have far reaching consequences. In the long term no amount of mitigation can overcome the devastating effect the substations will have on the village and the community of Friston. There is also great concern about the cumulative impact with other projects planned for this area (Sizewell C, National Grid Ventures interconnectors and further expansion of offshore windfarms) which will have a much wider and long term devastating effect on the Suffolk and Norfolk Coasts – there needs to be much better long term strategic planning and joined up thinking.