Advice to Rosemary Kersey
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- From
- Rosemary Kersey
- Date advice given
- 21 October 2019
- Enquiry type
Dear Rt Hon. Andrea Leadsom MP, Councillors, Sir/Madam, I am writing to express my ongoing anger and disbelief at the Scottish Power Renewable EA1N and EA2 planning proposals at Friston, Suffolk. I have written before for each consultation and will be registering as relevant representation with PINs at the relevant stage. I want to reaffirm my shock at the scale; threat to the village of Friston and surrounding area; and precedent to other huge energy developments. Renewable energy is a vital part of our ongoing national commitments to delivering carbon neutral energy supplies. However it is the lack of Government planning to this development and future developments that are destroying the East Anglian Coastline. The government have a duty to protect communities, the environment and wellbeing of residents from vast onshore infrastructures related to offshore wind farms. There are many brownfield sites that could be used for onshore infrastructure but energy companies are planning to destroy pristine coastal communities, AONB land and amenity land. The Government, OFGEM and National Grid have no accountability or interest in developing a sustainable approach to onshore developments for onshore infrastructure. Outlined below are the main concerns I have in relation to building the EA1N and EA2 substations in the village Friston: - flooding. The village is build around a watercourse that has had extensive flooding over the years with many properties flooded. The scale of the substations will turn high value agricultural land into a concrete development. The flood assessments by SPR are desk based, and unconvincing given the level of historic flooding in the village. Mitigation shows further amenity and agricultural land loss but shows little evidence of mapping and investigating the whole village to address the threats from flooding. -noise pollution. The PEIR shows that there will be permanent noise pollution by the substations. Given that SPR have not included the National Grid substation and future Nautilus Substations in their cumulative impact assessment I can only see that the noise will be greater than indicated. The substations are within 350metres of the village where there is currently no background noise. This cannot be mitigated against, there is no noise in the village. -damage to the landscape. At present the proposed site is a mixture of high agricultural land, public footpaths and woodlands. The 30+ acres of industrial development 15-18metres high cannot be mitigated against. The setting of the village, listed buildings and closure of public footpaths will be damaged irreversibly. The area also contains a number of important wildlife including skylarks and bats. The skylarks have only just started reappearing on the fields where the substations will be built. Mitigation will be over 25 years as tree growth will be slow and long lasting, given the life span of the substations, I will be over 100 by the time the trees are doing their job. It is also about the generations that are yet to come. Destroying parts of the AONB for cable routes, destroying amenity land and access, and ruining the heritage and archaeological of the village cannot be mitigated against. I hope you understand the damage these piecemeal approaches to energy developments will have on local communities, with particular damage to the village of Friston. Regards Rosemary Kersey
Advice given
Dear Rosemary, Planning Act 2008 (as amended) Proposals by ScottishPower Renewables (UK) Limited for the East Anglia ONE North Windfarm (EN010077). I am writing regarding your correspondence sent to the Planning Inspectorate dated 15 October 2019 in relation to the above proposal. The proposed application is at the Pre-application stage of the Planning Act 2008 process. The Planning Inspectorate is unable to consider representations about the merits of any application until it is accepted for Examination. Further information about the process can be found in the link below to the National Infrastructure Planning website: https://infrastructure.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/application-process/the-process/. From your email I can see that you are aware that should the application be submitted and accepted the ‘Registration and Relevant Representation form’ will be made available on the project page of the National Infrastructure Planning website during the Pre-examination stage. Further information about registering as an Interested Party can be found in the Planning Inspectorate’s ‘Advice Note 8.2: How to register to participate in an Examination’: https://infrastructure.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/legislation-and-advice/advice-notes/. Please note that, should both applications be submitted and accepted, to become an Interested Party in each examination you must register for both applications separately. Kind regards, Liam