Representation by Christian Wall
- Date submitted
- 11 March 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I am objecting to the proposed solar farm for the following reasons. I write as a resident of Newmarket for over 40 years, as a racehorse trainer based in that town, as chairman of the heath committee which oversees the running of the training grounds and as a former president of the national trainers federation. Newmarket is at the centre of the international Horseracing industry and it possesses some of the finest training grounds anywhere in the world. The best of these and of global repute is the Limekilns. Looking across the gallops to the farm land beyond is a joy and to have to look at an industrial site will detract considerably from the aesthetics and ambience of the whole area. I regularly exercise my horses on a bridle path adjacent to the Chippenham Estate, an activity that I will be denied both during construction and beyond to the detriment of my business as a whole. During construction the roads and lanes in this peaceful area will be destroyed by the weight of traffic and be unsafe for people going about their business in this area. Removing high quality agricultural land from production is sheer folly at any time and particularly in the current economic and political climate. Aiming to considerably reduce the nation's carbon footprint is commendable but it has to be multi layered. Taking land out of production means that the produce will have to be sourced elsewhere, most likely from overseas which means actually increasing the carbon footprint. The land earmarked for this scheme, in addition to being productive farmland, is also abundant in wildlife from large mammals like red and roe deer down to hares (increasingly under threat), stoats, weasels and the humble mice and voles. Along with many species of birds and insects it is in short an asset to the nations wildlife. With farmers being encouraged to set aside land for the benefit of nature this scheme has to be the very antithesis of that. Close to the overall site are many sites of national importance for nature. Lakenheath Fen has the nations largest population of the very rare Common Crane. Welney Wash is an internationally important wetland reserve, Chippenham Fen is an ongoing project to restore land to its original form. All these sites designated for development are prime habitat for the Stone Curlew, a protected and rare species of bird found only in the Breckland. Fencing off the land and creating a monoculture of man's creation is not the way forward. In short an industrial site of vast proportions in the middle of a rural area is destructive and completely counter to a central tenet of Government policy.