Representation by Chris Royston
- Date submitted
- 6 March 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I strongly object to the Sunnica Solar Farm Development. Even given the current energy situation, it is important for our future generations that the renewable energy we use is sustainable, reduces our carbon footprint and can be used indefinitely without negatively impacting the local community, landscape and wildlife and, just as importantly, our mental health and wellbeing. I do not feel that the Sunnica development meets these requirements, and that it will impact our community negatively for many generations to come. Here are my main reasons for objection to the development; • The size of the site is massive, it has a significant impact on the local community and is spread out through over seven villages which will affect thousands of local people. • The land proposed in the development is predominantly flat, fencing and trees will change the landscape removing the natural beauty of the area and adversely affecting habitat for local wildlife. • The land proposed to be used currently is vegetable growing farmland, removing this from the local community will affect local farms that use these fields, the local job market and food production more generally. • There will be a significant loss of habitat for wildlife. I’d also note that much of the development is very close to local SSIs (Chippenham Fen a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I, a Ramsar wetland site, and a Special Area of Conservation (part of the multi-site Fenland SAC), and Fordham Woods which is a wet valley woodland, a rare habitat in Cambridgeshire) • The Carbon footprint of the whole project from manufacturing the panels, to their commissioning will be significantly more than the offset of energy the panels provide. • Solar Panel Batteries are not safe, and are prone to thermal runaway in the event of a fire. There is 77 acres of battery storage planned, some of which is close to residential areas which is not acceptable. • There is no decommissioning plan which will be expensive and left for future generations to deal with. • There will be a colossal increase in traffic during its development which would cause a significant impact to all of the local villages – many of which are very small and have narrow roads.