Representation by Mrs Lucie Smith
- Date submitted
- 16 March 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I object to this planned development as it will have a massively detrimental impact on the surrounding countryside. This is an application to rewrite the local landscape from a tranquil agricultural setting, rich in wildlife to an industrial setting. The views over the landscape and the feel of the area will be changed forever with panels, batteries, fencing, noise and light pollution a dominating factor. The government solar strategy states a preference for ground-mounted solar to be developed on brown field sites. There is no evidence that large scale solar development on valuable agricultural land is required to meet the country’s future energy needs. Germany has already developed more than 40 GW of solar power (more than the UK currently has in the planning pipeline), with the vast majority of this being on rooftops. There is a limit to the amount of solar power that the UK grid can manage, and there is an argument that this could be produced from existing "brown field" locations as well as commercial and domestic rooftops.