Representation by Hayley Fisher
- Date submitted
- 13 February 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Large amounts of produce are grown and matured on this land; Potatoes, carrots, onions, wheat, barley, rye, sugar beet, maize, livestock. Over the past years food costs are rising as quick if not quicker than energy. Your proposal for solar energy does not balance out the loss of the outputs from this land. The unethical mining of the lithium for the batteries is completely unacceptable. These unethical sourced batteries also pose a huge fire risk as well as air pollution and at present if they were to catch fire there is no way of putting them out. The Ickneild Way footpath has been a public highway and has been for 2000+ years. Most days the car park, as you enter Snailwell, is full. On several occasions I have counted at least 40+ different people that I passed by on a 45 minute walk. The walk is used by many people in the area. It is used as a commuter route (being the only footpath to newmarket), by many dog walkers, and by people wanting to exercise. This is also the only footpath in the area that is accessible 24/7 for wheelchair users. There are a number of people that have reduced mobile that rely on having access to this to be able to get out in the countryside, the same goes for mothers with pushchairs. There is not an alternative that can be used if this was closed. The roads that you are proposing we walk on as an alternative are unsafe for people walking or exercising. There is a huge amount of traffic already using these roads, making them dangerous at the best of times, let alone with the huge increase in lorries that you are proposing also use these routes during the construction period. The roads are already in a dire state, you cannot fit a lorry down them with on-coming traffic without them having to take large chunks out of the verges. The road has seen an increase in traffic from the works on the newmarket A14 recently and it is evident that it cannot cope with that. This is a massive risk to all, and a serious accident will happen.