Representation by Mark Edward Wardle
- Date submitted
- 24 March 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
As a resident of Marton for over 30 years I would like to object to this development. I believe the use of active and productive arable farmland is wrong. I think that food security is of paramount interest for the country by decommissioning active and productive farmland will encourage yet more imports with all the issues that this practice brings. There is the ecological harm that turning huge tracts of farmland will cause, such as the loss of habitat and wildlife corridors that security fencing this huge ares off. There is also the concerns over battery safety and PV panel life and concerns over decommissioning and recycling of spent panels. There are a number of other solar developments pending for the same general area which if built will connect with this development and make for one huge solar development I consider this development wholly inappropriate. The use of active and productive arable farmland is totally unacceptable. When you consider the situation with food import costs and security issues it make absolutely no sense to use productive arable farmland. There are huge issues when isolating this amount of land with security fencing as the land provides invaluable wildlife corridors and refuges. The physical size of this development and the other pending applications is truly staggering and will effect 30 plus parishes. I wish to reiterate I am not anti-solar in anyway but to sacrifice this huge amount of food production is fundamentally wrong.