Representation by Kirstie Berridge
- Date submitted
- 28 February 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I am a resident of the village of Essendine in the beautiful county of Rutland and on the outskirts of the historic market town of Stamford. While a huge supporter of the production of green energy, in the right way and in the right locations, I write to object to the proposal for the large-scale Mallard Pass solar farm on a site of 2,105 acres (c1.300 football pitches), solar areas 1,052 acres. I outline some of my concerns as follows: I understand that solar energy is a hugely inefficient source of energy production delivering only 11% of its stated capacity on average in the UK. It therefore does not make sense to take such a large area of agricultural land out of production at a time we need to protect our food production and when we are seeing increasingly frequent examples of shortages of particular foods and the unpredictability of our / the world’s climate. I understand construction will take two years – two years of noise, light pollution, disruption and damage across the 2,105-acre site. With up to 400 workers a day on-site working 7am to 7pm Monday to Saturday. The area is not designed for the heavy equipment and traffic that will be required to install the solar farm (80, 400 and 1000 tonne HGV loads). Many of the local lanes are narrow, lined by beautiful hedgerows. None of the roads here are built for such loads. I chose to live in this area because of its rural nature and because of the beautiful views and walks and rural leisure activities. I do not want my neighbourhood to be surrounded by fences, three-metre-high solar panels, unsightly containers, security lighting and cameras. I will feel like a caged animal. There will also be significant and constant noise pollution. I do not believe there is a clear strategy in terms of protection of bio-diversity and that this has been treated as a tick box exercise rather than having a qualitative approach with clear habitat management plans - again, minimum work for maximum profit. I am also concerned regarding the health issues for the neighbourhood of being surrounded by such a large area of solar panels - both physically and mentally. My concerns include for the massive battery storage facility within the original proposal but which is no longer being presented "at this time". The safety regulations around these batteries are insufficient and these should not be considered so near to residential areas (or anywhere really as they are so toxic and potentially explosive if they become unstable). I understand that there may be human rights concerns regarding the manufacture of the solar panels. I was assured by the development company at an exhibition that there was absolutely no grounds for this and that my MP [Redacted] had dropped her claims around this. But I now do not believe this is the case. It is abhorrent to be working / sourcing materials from a company linked to human rights issues. Despite early promises of benefits to the local community I have seen or heard nothing of these. It feels as if the developers are [Redacted] the local area for their own profit. Masked under the guise of trying to help against climate change but really just seeing an opportunity to make money for themselves.