Representation by Richard Saul
- Date submitted
- 13 March 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I find that I cannot support the Sunnica proposal as submitted due to the following: a) The placement/location of the Elms Road BESS and the associated hazards created by both its use of lithium batteries and its proximity to residents and schools b) The proposed use of the BESS for both the green initiative of Solar energy collection & storage, alongside a non-green initiative of energy trading (grid balancing) for no other purpose that to make the project more profitable at the expense of a larger size storage facility and the associated increased risk. c) Reduction in 'countryside' footpaths leading from our village and industrial views on the remaining paths & by-ways to the north and north west of the village. The whole solar farm changing from a peaceful rural landscape to an industrial solar plant. d) Impact of increased traffic and heavy goods vehicles on the two islands directly off the slip roads from the A11 and road from Worlington, to the north of the village. The islands are already poorly maintained, often suffering from pot-holes and when wet, very slippy with mud from the quarry - this could be very dangerous with the sizeable HGVs carrying battery storage containers - this needs addressing in the Sunnica proposals e) Land classification grades presented by Sunnica are out of date and not consistent with DEFRA's Agricultural Land Classifications - land owners will not allow independent land analysis and Sunnica have not provided results of their detailed analysis - until the land is independently analysed the project shouldn't go ahead - we cannot loose good agricultural land - we cannot grow crops on buildings and brown field sites, but we can put solar panels there f) Sunnica need to be made responsible for decommissioning of the solar plant after 40 years, their current proposal does not guarantee the land will be returned to its original state and that solar panels will be recycled. An escrow process needs to be set up with each solar farm owner and transferred with ownership - this is required to ensure decommissioning happens