Representation by Paul Wray
- Date submitted
- 8 March 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I am against the Cottam proposal for the following reasons. As this solar farm proposal is one of four separate proposals, within a few miles of each other, amounting to 10000 acres, the proposals should be assessed altogether. As part of Island Green Powers consultation process I attended an in person seminar at Blyton Memorial Hall, I was greeted by a pleasant lady, who showed me round the presentation boards, when I started to ask a few questions she passed me on to a more technically aware gentleman. As I have been in the electricity generation industry for more than 35 years I found his answers to my questions to be laughable, when I challenged the answers he was giving me he became very aggressive to a point were people in the room were staring at us. At this point he moved on to talk to other people in the room. I feel Island Green Power to be economical with the truth when dealing with the public. To lose 10000 acres of what is mostly quality farm land when we already rely on imported food to such a degree is more than worrying, especially the world as it is at the present time. You only have to look on Gridwatch to see what a limited role solar can play, for half the year it is virtually useless and for the other half of the year it is useful for approximately six hours a day. Solar panels should be on roofs and on brownfield sites not on good agricultural land. Wildlife habitats would be decimated by these proposals. The mental wellbeing of the people who live near these sites has not been taken into consideration, they have chosen to live in the countryside not in a industrialised landscape, which these proposals will create.