Representation by T Fairley & Son's ltd (T Fairley & Son's ltd)
- Date submitted
- 22 May 2024
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Five Estuaries, North Falls the National Grid projects all affect my business, the cumulative impact the projects have on the local community, businesses, roads, property values, mental health, environmental impact, and so on should be looked at as a whole. To start, I would like to make clear that throughout the consultation there has been no clarity from [Redacted], they have assured us that the two projects would be collaborating, however this has not been the case. They have only been collaborating when it suits them, which so far they have only collaborated on their sub-station location, cable route and the heads of terms that DM have sent to land owners. This seems to be to keep their costs down for acquiring the land or rights, North Falls are still yet to apply for their DCO and there is still no clarity that the two projects will be collaborating during development and putting their cables in along the construction corridor. This could cause land to be dug up, back filled and then dug up again in the future for the North Falls project or further corridor for any other connection that EACN may offer. Sub-station location. Why have the substation’s been proposed in the manner they have? The topography here is flat and to have two substations constructed in the manner proposed have a significant adverse visual impact on the local area, as well as our retained residential property and farm yard. Why can’t these substations be constructed on land adjoining National Grid’s existing infrastructure, or better still, on brownfield land? The land set out within the HoT's sent out by DM for Five Estuaries together with North Falls around 75 acres which equates to around 20% of our farm. The land is grade 1 quality, has irrigation and is high yielding land ideal for root crop and cereal production. Adjacent to our farm yard, Normans Farm, the land is crucial to our business remaining sustainable. Who knows when there will be any land come onto the market locally, it is highly unlikely that we will ever be able buy land of the same area (75 acres) and of grade 1 quality with irrigation. As a business we have invested heavily in a new grain store and machinery over the past 5 years including a new combine harvester, sprayer, seed drill, tractors and cultivators. The cost of this totals over £1m, loosing so much of our farm after this investment is catastrophic for our business, the cost to farm our retained land is now even greater due to the economies of scale, this will leave our business extremely vulnerable on a bad farming year, whether it's down to the weather, a war, a global pandemic, or government agricultural policy. If our input costs were to suddenly spike the farm business would be totally unsustainable, losing 20% of our land was not in the plan when making these investments. The retained land at Normans Farm will still have the benefit of the irrigation infrastructure, however it is not clear how Five Estuaries will mitigate the effect that their development will have on the borehole that services the irrigation. The water table is very high in Little Bromley and the borehole is only 19ft deep, grade 1 land is vulnerable in drought as it can't retain moisture so irrigation is essential, if this was to become dry then there would be a huge cost to us to invest in a new irrigation system, made more expensive that there would only be around 130 acres left at Normans Farm for it to service. This will also inevitably cause loss of crops for the year it fails and we would not be able to include root crops (currently potatoes and onions) in a crop rotation until the point at which we could afford to invest in a new borehole. This causes significant harm to our business as we are unable to plan. Until FE can answer this question our hands are tied. On the 8th February 2023 DM asked made us aware of invasive surveys that FE wanted to undertake on the land, the surveys consisted of 50mx2m trenches and 3m deep pits, the field was planned for onions to be planted and because of the high value of the onions they chose not to come on the land until after they were harvested. DM asked when the earliest they could carry out the surveys which we replied Autumn 2024 at the earliest. This was because after the onions are harvested it is important to turn the field around quickly for the following crop (wheat), if it rains too much before the next crop is in then the land would be fallow until Spring 2024. Our request was not listened too, and the field became so wet that the trenches were not able to backfilled until May 2024, leaving it too late to even get a Spring crop in, to us this is a taste of what is to come. There has been no drainage plan shown to mitigate how the run off from the development of the sub-stations, if not dealt with sufficiently then this will cause flooding to farm land and also residential properties. Cable route. The cable route crossed through our land and also land that we rent off of neighbours. Land drains will be disrupted and a suitable drainage scheme must be reinstated and strictly inspected during construction. As far as I understand, if in the future there is a problem with a drain within the easement FE want to acquire we won't be able to dig it up and repair it ourselves. This will lead to delays in repair and loss of crop in the meantime. The depth of the cable should be no less than 1.2m to keep it below irrigation mains and most land drains this cannot be guaranteed. No matter how good the land is back filled, the soil structure is not going to recover for decades. Where there will be temporary haul roads along the cable corridor, I am really not sure how this land will be viable to crop in the future. As farmers we keep traffic on the land to a minimum, to put it simply, the land is our income, the more we damage it the less income we generate. Joint bayes and link boxes for the cables should be buried underground so that they are not exposed, if above ground in a field they will be an obstacle to farm around costing us more man hours, fuel, tractor hours and more wear on machinery. All above points will affect our already tight profit margin. Permanent haul road. Although there has been no engagement from [Redacted] on this, we have been made aware from [Redacted] for Norwich to Tilbury that there will be a permanent haul road and a temporary construction compound on our land to service all 3 new sub-stations. The haul road is not on the cable corridor and included within the same scheme is the widening of Ardleigh Road and Bentley Road. The village of Little Bromley will be uninhabitable during the construction process. As farmers following the initiative from government we have planted over 3000 meters of hedges within the last 5 years, many of which will now have to be removed along with hedges over 150 years old. The environmental impact and harm to wildlife which has been poorly assessed during the consultation process will arguably be greater than what Five Estuaries deem it. Agricultural policy has changed in recent years for farmers to meet the governments agenda. Five Estuaries have made it clear that across there easement over the cable corridor (20m, 40m including NF) that we will not be able to plant trees or hedges. Five Estuaries have also included severed bits of land around the substation site within their application that we as a business could still utilise for wildlife areas or carbon sequestration, these areas are an unnecessary land grab which further harm our business. There has been no consideration given within the planning process which supports affected land owners in their aims of becoming carbon neutral when hosting “green” infrastructure. We are forced into sacrificing their own land for the third parties including the private global investors [Redacted] and also for the government to meet their net zero targets. Since the very moment I realised the scale of this project not a day goes by without it weighing on my mind, as a family we talk about the affect that the projects are going to have on our homes, our businesses and our livelihoods every day. The mental health impact on all residents and stakeholders in Little Bromley can not be mitigated against and has been a growing issue ignored by FE. This is not helped by the threat of a fourth project, Tarchon, a German interconnector who’s connection point is into the National Grid’s new sub-station co-located with Five Estuaries and North Falls sub-station. How are we as farmers expected to make any further investments into our business if any of this infrastructure goes ahead? There will always be something else around the corner. Not only does this sterilise my business from growing and being sustainable for future generations but it also de-values it, if I chose to sell the farm and move elsewhere its value is already significantly reduced compared to 5 years ago due to the prospect of any and all of these developments. Giving consent to the projects will be damaging to our livelihoods, our businesses, the local community and the environment when there are other alternatives that have not been properly considered.