Representation by Frances Lygo
- Date submitted
- 28 February 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I am profoundly concerned with Mallard Pass and their proposed industrial development of a vast solar park on the shoulders of historic Stamford and the rural villages surrounding it for the following reasons: 1. The destruction of countryside and habitat and wholesale change into an industrial landscape in a traditionally historic rural area making a mockery of the conservation areas around it. No more England's green and pleasant land. 2. The change of use of land from farming in a time of food security. 3. The impact on the area and residents, both from the perspectives of unsustainable traffic during the build time and lasting a duration of the next forty years, tantamounting to a whole generation of distruction, impact, regret and the loss of something very precious: a place where families and communities have invested their lives because of the very nature of the area and where it is. I live on a road which I imagine will be used by works traffic, it is already congested and busy and where traffic has already increased considerably over the many years I have lived in the area, but this proposal will bring more very heavy and unsuitable traffic, pollutants and more noise pollution. 4. Solar parks are not the most efficient way to generate energy and alternatives should be considered, there are many other alternatives. 5. During conversations with the representatives from the developer I found they were not able to give enough detail on many questions I asked ie they promised wild flower meadows but when I asked what spiecies would be planted it was unclear and in the end I was then told a general grass mix, too many if's and but's and lack of clarity, the company seems to be 'winging it'. Their representatives (who are on Mallard Passes payrol) when asked what the ecological benefits they claim will be were again vague in percentage terms were not able to give anything like the accuracy one would have expected in terms of actual statistics. The problem for the developer is that people in the area do care and it does matter because it is their homes, their livelihoods and their landscape which will be destoryed forever. They are just jumping on the bandwagon and profiteering without any regard for the people or wildlife who live here (most of them came from cities and spent little or no time in the countryside, I know this because I asked them so they were not sympathetic to the countryside or to the people who live in it). We have a duty to protect our natural countryside and landscape and the communities who live here, it is not a case of them reading the landscape for value [Redacted], the value lies in us allowing it to read us and caring for and protecting what is precious. If this kind of development is not checked England will have a silver spine of solar parks the length and breadth of the country. These are my primary concerns but there are many others which will be highligted by other very concerned parties.