Representation by Frederick Ambrose Munster Kingston
- Date submitted
- 4 February 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Dear Planning Inspectors I wish to state my concern and objection to the proposed solar farm on the grounds of food security. Successive governments in the UK have I feel, failed in looking ahead and making provision for things we all hope won’t happen, like war. We have lived in our comfort zone for too long, assuming that the world will go on the same as it has for the last 30 years or so, and ignoring the lessons of history. Western society has become dangerously dependent on supplies from countries, like Russia, and even more so, China, brutal dictatorships that have no sympathy with the freedoms and rule of law that we so cherish. We live in a dangerous world, and there should be specific government policies that will provide for a situation where trade is stopped, or drastically reduced. I say this completely non-politically, as I believe all governments of recent times are guilty of a certain amount of neglect. While this applies to many commodities and goods that we so rely on, there is nothing that compares in importance with the supply of food. Can we not learn from both the World Wars, when Britain was perilously close to starvation, and that when we had the biggest navy in the world, along with the US? We can survive (to some extent) without electricity if needs must, but we cannot survive without food. To eliminate large areas of fertile and food-producing land in the name of carbon reduction is very short-sighted. Yes, the drive to reduce dependence on fossil fuels is well-intentioned, but not at the expense of food production. There are other methods of harnessing solar, wind and tidal energy. The place for solar panels is on roofs and wasteland, e.g. brownfield sites, and visually unattractive locations like beside motorways and railway lines. Food production is not viable on roofs, but solar energy is. Let's keep things where they belong. I ask that the scheme be refused permission to proceed. Ambrose Kingston