Representation by John Arnold Hallam
- Date submitted
- 9 March 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
This application is just 1of 4 solar farms proposed around Gainsborough. Together they would cover an area of 10,000 acres making it the largest in Europe. These proposals will have a cumulative effect and should be assessed together. They will result in the loss of farm land and change a rural landscape into a industrialised one. The panels will be up to 4.5m high with other industrial style buildings housing transformers and batteries spread throughout the proposed site which will have a devastating impact on the character of the area and will dominate the landscape. The visual impact will be devastating and will be seen from miles away. Battery storage facilities within the proposal will present a fire risk and should they catch fire they will be life threatening due to the release of toxic fumes. The existing ecology will be decimated during the construction phase with no prospect of recovery once the works are completed. This will result in a net biodiversity loss not only for the areas of the solar farms but also for the extensive cable routes. It appears the land has been selected on availability with large absentee landowners, trusts etc being targeted rather than considering brownfield sites. This will be devastating for the tenant farmers who will loose their livelihood. Local people would have to endure a 3/4 year construction phase and at the end of it would be living in an industrial landscape rather than the rural one they now have now. This will have an effect on people’s mental health and wellbeing. This along with the other proposed solar farms is totally unacceptable important factors such has brownfield sites, Panel height, glare, generator buildings etc have not been adequately communicated to the public. To install the most inefficient generating system and take out food production such large areas of land at a time of food insecurity appears total folly.