Representation by Colin Wilding
- Date submitted
- 26 February 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I wish to register my strong objection to the application for the Mallard Pass Solar farm proposal. My reasons are as follows: 1. Loss of a huge amount of prime agricultural land - the UK needs to become more self-reliant in food production. Recent worldwide events clearly demonstrate that food security is a real issue & it is short sighted to take productive agricultural land out of production. 2. The proposed area is far too big for the area & will have a massive impact on surrounding villages. Every route we use for recreation will be impacted & where we currently have green fields, these will be replaced with a massive sea of ugly solar panels, this will impact on everyone's mental & physical health. 3. Industrialisation of the countryside, leading to loss of habitat for wildlife. 4. If batteries are stored as part of the installation then there are serious concerns over the safety of these. 5. Currently solar farms appear to produce a tiny % of their stated efficiency - there must be more efficient ways of producing green energy. 6. Possible increased risk of flooding due to runoff from panels - we already have issues with flooding in this area. 7. We have concerns over the negative impact of our environment during construction i.e. noise, heavy traffic, HGV's on all local roads & the safety concerns for pedestrians, cyclists & in fact all road users whilst this work progresses along with concerns over the safety of children on their way to school, & when using the roads & paths for recreation, not to mention the additional pollution caused by this traffic. 8. Inevitable reduction in property values. 9. Inevitable reduction in tourism. 10. There appears to be evidence of the use of forced labour in the Chinese supply chain of [Redacted] - this is simply not acceptable under any circumstance. 11. Existing brownfield sites, car parks, large buildings could be used for solar panels rather than destruction of beautiful/productive countryside. 12. Environmental impact of decommissioning the panels. In addition, I strongly object to the fact that the companies behind the proposal have clearly stated that there is a strong possibility that they won't still be part of the project by the time that any work would commence - this clearly demonstrates that the businesses are not interested in seeing this through to completion & the driving force behind this proposal is pure greed rather than trying to find a solution to our energy needs. I'd like to add that I am not against trying to find green solutions to provide energy, however we need to consider other viable alternatives such as wind turbines before allowing a development of this size to be 'dumped' in a rural area. At least the land beneath turbines could be used for agricultural purposes.