Representation by Fiona McIntyre
- Date submitted
- 15 March 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I object to the current Sunnica Ltd application to create an 2500 acre energy farm surrounding the villages of Isleham, Chippenham, Worlington, Fordham, Snailwell, Freckenham, Red Lodge and Burwell. I have been following the development of this application from Sunnica Ltd since summer of 2019, have read their literature, participated in the webinars run by Sunnica Ltd and I still have many unanswered concerns about the size, location, safety, impact and long term sustainability of the project. I cannot document all of my concerns here so I have focused on one area. Climate change is a big threat to human existence but is a complex problem which requires a coherent, integrated global approach to protect life, energy and food security. It appears to me the main purpose of the Sunnica Ltd project is to tick a box in the UK government strategy to reach net zero by 2050. Little thought has gone in to the environmental impact of building the site, ecological health of the Earth and the welfare of the people in the villages whose wellbeing will certainly diminish. We live in the countryside and raise our children here because we want to live a sustainable existence cycling rather than driving, buying food locally from farmers, growing our own, teaching the children the importance of the earth and the nature that surrounds us, how to live sustainability and protect the earth for the future. "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" - Our common future (the Brundtland Report) To completely re-develop the countryside landscape and rural way of life in this area of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to large scale industrial is un-humanitarian. Installation of this energy farm will have a massive impact on local ecological health and the physical environment, reap the Earth of finite minerals to achieve a miniscule reduction in CO2 production. Climate change will affect agricultural yields [Redacted]. It’s expected, in northern Europe agricultural productivity might increase due to a longer growing season and an extension of the frost-free period. Warmer temperatures and longer growing seasons might also allow new crops to be cultivated. In southern Europe, however, extreme heat events and reductions in precipitation and water availability are expected to hamper crop productivity. Taking 2500 acres of arable farming land out of commission for half a century is not a viable solution when food security across the globe is at threat. Much evidence has been circulated in recent years around the growing greenhouse gas emissions driven by dairy and meat farming and the population is being encouraged to switch to plant-based diets as this will have the biggest gain in carbon reduction. How does removing arable land and sources of crops aid this cause? This solar farm is not a solution to the global climate threat, there are many alternatives that should be sought first, which will have a much bigger impact and I implore the planning inspectorate to please reject this proposal.