Representation by Rhona Lewis
- Date submitted
- 26 January 2020
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I support the representations already made by SASES and by Friston Parish Council. The danger is that Britain’s reputation for being a leader in renewable offshore energy is about to be ruined by the lack of proper overall planning for onshore infrastructure. 1. Brown-field sites should be chosen if the infrastructure has to be onshore. At the same time major efforts should be made to develop ring-mains. 2. To put two vast sub-stations on agricultural land right alongside a beautiful rural village will have a devastating impact on the landscape and on the life of the village itself. 3. The loss of 83 acres of good agricultural land is exactly what this country (and county) should be avoiding. 4. This area’s main income is from tourism, an ‘industry’ which is very sensitive to changes in a countryside which already contains Sizewell. Sizewell has brown-field sites if the power has to come ashore here. It is very hard to discover how much discussion there has been between Scottish Power and EDF. 5. The area has to assume that this particular development will be followed by others. If this scheme is what amounts to the thin end of a wedge, then there is all the more reason for serious country-wide strategic thinking now, rather than piecemeal attempts to find vulnerable places which will then be easy game for more major power-related developments. 6. People are rightly increasingly aware of the inter-connectedness of numerous ecological factors which means that a project like this will have a lot of unintended consequences in an area known for its beauty and its wildlife. About 30 acres of what is planned for the site is wildlife habitat. With one of the greatest features of this area being RSPB Minsmere, the provision of areas for birds is a crucial priority. 7. It is significant that this issue is not seen as the affair of one small village, but rather of this whole area. Parish Councils across much of East Suffolk have come together to show their solidarity in seeing that the impact of this piecemeal approach involves them all. It is natural for Scottish Power to wish to make money and to put their infrastructure in a place which seems convenient to them, but they underestimate the number of people affected and their strength of feeling.