Representation by Kate Hodgson
- Date submitted
- 17 March 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Having been brought up within agriculture all of my life and in more recent years having involvement in farming the land in surrounding areas to this proposed project of Chippenham and Isleham, the outline of this project is alarming to see. Highly productive agricultural and predominately vegetable land, which has been farmed and passed through generations to provide for the nation is not available as readily as we require in order to meet and sustain demands for UK food production. Through the removal of this land for a project which provides nothing for the local community let alone the nation, will reduce our ability to grow the high quantities of crops required causing a requirement for importing produce therefore reducing food standards, quality and increasing the price for customers. The habitats and work to improvement environmental stewardship from all farmers across the UK will be put to waste and damaged further through the highly polluting Sunnica project. With the current status of the world and such uncertain times, it would be thought that everyone should be backing their own countries strengths and looking to become self sufficient where possible to prevent over reliance on others. Not only from a practical view point is this an outrageous proposal but the safety of surrounding communities must be considered. The fire risks that these systems pose, electrical related risks and the increased carbon which will be produced rather than saving, ruins all work that has been in place to reach net zero carbon in food production. With such an incompetent company being employed, who have no prior experience of inputting such battery systems on a large scale should be enough to deter the continuation of the proposals on its own. Safety should be paramount over profits for the Spanish owners as the land is invaluable to the current owners who are using these greenfield sites for their primary purpose.