Representation by Clare Byrne
- Date submitted
- 27 January 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I object to this application due to the sheer scale of the site being developed and it's proximity to so many houses, schools and businesses. Red Lodge only has 3 points of entry and exit into the village, 2 of which meet the A11. In the event of an evacuation these would need to be closed as these are the closest to the development, leaving 1 exit for the entire village. There are also 2 primary schools within the village and the evacuation zone should there be a fire. There is no way to safely leave the village on foot leaving many people trapped in the village, for example children, the elderly and the disabled. There are few business premises within the village but there are hundreds of self employed and small limited company businesses within the village, all run from home, including my own. In the event of an evacuation I would not only have to leave my home but also my business. If a fire were to spread to the village we could potentially lose our home, our children's school and our source of income in the same day. I agree that solar power is the way forward and we already have many solar farms in the area but the sheer size of this proposed development is in my opinion unsafe, it will destroy local wildlife and have a detrimental effect on farming in the local area. I also fear that our local emergency services are not large enough or equipped enough to deal with a large scale emergency at the site. House prices will drop and insurance costs will rise as soon as this planning is approved which will be detrimental to the booming housing industry and local economy. It may also leave many residents in negative equity. Sunnica have been invited to several meeting to address local concerns and have not attended. At the end of the day they are a business out to make money and they have no interest in local concerns. I don't believe they have done enough to address people's safety concerns or planned sufficiently for the decommissioning of the site at the end of it's life.