Representation by The Wells Family (The Wells Family)
- Date submitted
- 7 February 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
To Whom it may Concern Having attended a Consultation event at Ryhall Village Hall and whilst I am fully aware of the need to increase our solar production of energy, I am of course in agreement for this type of development to be carried out in appropriate areas of the country. However, I wish to formally object to the Mallard Pass Solar development on land near Essendine and surrounding villages and more particularly on land directly adjacent to our small settlement of 7 individual private residential dwellings housing over 20 residents and adjacent livery yard and equine business. REASONS FOR OBJECTION: 1/ Landscape & Visual Impact I along with my neighbours have peacefully lived within our small Hamlet for approx. 15 years and have benefitted from peaceful use and enjoyment of our rural location and its amenity value attached with it. We also receive all the full services of the local authority including waste bin collections etc.. directly collected from our properties. We therefore live with equal rights and benefits to those residents who live in the larger villages such as Essendine, Ryhall and Belmesthorpe. I deserve equal protection and consideration to my home as do other villagers and I can see clearly from my property as can my neighbours straight onto the land you are intending to encumber with the solar farm and its fencing which will consist of a sea of ugly black plastic panels and 10 ft high fencing less than 200m from my property. Why is it therefore that all the other villages surrounding the proposed development including Essendine, Greatford, and the town of Stamford have protection installed by yourselves with the use of “Potential Mitigation and Enhancement Areas” as displayed on your plan and quite clearly you have not even considered proposing any form of Mitigation and Enhancement adjacent to our Hamlet. I realise we are not listed buildings where we are but neither are there any listed buildings in Essendine being protected by the proposed areas of Mitigation. Secondly, it is proposed that these solar panels are located on both sides and adjacent to one of our roadways directly accessing our Hamlet again with no proposals by yourselves to install Potential Mitigation and Enhancement of any sort or degree. We would simply be expected to approach our homes along a 400m road set within a prison-like fenced sea of plastic solar panels. Again, I can see no other small settlements and private dwellings within your proposal that have their road and accessways directly approaching their homes RUINED as we would if your development was allowed. 2/ Reduction in the value of/saleability my home I as have all other homeowners, have spent my entire working life investing into my family home which would suffer significant loss in value with the solar farm this close and unprotecting the impact of it from my home. We do not know of the Health risks and more importantly potential land contamination risks of a development of this scale being so close to dwellings. It is also highly likely to make the dwellings adjacent to the solar farm including ours at Grange Farm incapable of obtaining affordable mortgages and therefore unsaleable without any proper mitigation or enhancement. Even more importantly due to the proximity of the proposed development, it is highly likely that we will be classified as being located within an increased flood risk area making ourselves even more unsaleable! 3/ Land Use and Agriculture The scale of the proposed development in excess of 2000 acres is enormous to be sited in such a sensitive agricultural area, bounded by so many established and expanding villages, and in proximity to the ancient town of Stamford is absolutely unacceptable. The impact it would have on the area would be irrevocably destructive. It was also disclosed at one of the public presentations that the applicant requires a lot less land to be taken up in the region of 550 hectares to satisfy the needs/output required of the solar farm. Again, the proposal is taking excessive valuable highly productive quality land out of national food production. The British Isles are the most densely occupied islands in the world and are now already dependant on over 60% imported food and rapidly losing more and more self-sufficiency and any further reduction of our agricultural farmland is not advisable. The Government should continue to consider brown field sites before decimating productive agricultural land. Why is it that we have not seen any form of survey showing a sequential test in the Eastern Part of England proving that there are no other underutilised suitable brownfield sites or other areas of less productive agricultural land. If this could be shown then it would help to justify your proposed development. 4/ Local Ecology and Bird Life The entire immediate location North, South, East and West of Grange Farm is abundant with Wild deer and Muntjack and Birdlife regularly seen benefitting from the habitat surrounding us and in particular within the local ancient woodlands and other woods nearby. This development would quite simply encourage the removal of their existence from the area and indeed have a substantial effect on the remainder of Natures food chain. They must be protected. 5/ Flood Risk There is great concern about the effect the proposed development would have upon flood risk of the area. Much of the proposed development would cover a natural floodplain and it would be ridiculous to even consider that the vast extent and number of panels will not alter the pattern of drainage and potentially cause flooding in this period of climate change. This is because the run-off of rainwater from the thousands of solar panels would create a different situation than when rainwater runs onto bare or cropped land and the associated change in the rate of water infiltration by the soil because of the run-off being more concentrated than normal rainfall over an area. The villages surrounding the proposed development have already been overwhelmed by flooding several times over the past years and it is a situation already likely to deteriorate in the forthcoming years and the proposed development would without question accelerate this situation. Again, it is quite clear from the proposal that there are no proposed improvements to the surface water drainage infrastructure to offset any future risk of uncontrollable egress of excess rainwater and particularly with Climate change forthcoming. IN Christmas 2020 all of the residents within our Hamlet nearly suffered flooding within our home as the rainwater could not get away quick enough and its level reached 50mm below our door thresholds. We had a 100mm river flowing across our Tennis Court, the likes of which have never been seen! These panels will certainly exacerbate this and put us into a terrifying situation to live in! For the above reasons it is imperative that the proposed development be relocated to other suitable land elsewhere in the Country. Everyone understands and accepts the need for clean sustainable energy but it should not be at the cost of destroying our environment – the very thing we are trying to preserve and our precious productive farmland. I confirm that if the proposed development is going to proceed further then I would be receptive to a representative of the developer coming to see me and my neighbours as a matter of urgency to discuss any proposals they may have that might accommodate our needs such that we could continue to live and enjoy our homes as we have been doing so to date and fully protect ourselves and the environment we need to live in. I confirm that I speak on behalf of myself and my wife [Redacted] and children [Redacted]