Representation by Ann Burles
- Date submitted
- 11 September 2024
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Industrialisation of Aldington and its cumulative impact The Converter Station in Church Lane, Aldington is significant in terms of its connectivity to the National Grid, in which form it provides links to the Grid for third party organisations who require such access. The first solar generating facility and the start of cumulative impact In 2015, the first 62 acre, Partridge Farm solar array was completed and commissioned in Church Lane. Cumulative impact develops further in 2023 2023 saw the approval of an application from Pivot Power for the construction of a 57MW Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) on 5 acres of land in Church Lane. Not content with their plans to create the BESS, Pivot Power’s planning application includes a vision whereby the planned facilities would be subsequently enlarged and developed to incorporate a high-volume power connection and private power network. Further creep and cumulative impact from Welsh Power 2023 also saw the approval of Welsh Power’s application to construct a Synchronous Condenser Plant on 12 acres of land in Church Lane. Solar development potentially creates huge cumulative impact In July 2024, after 2 years of consultation, EPL001’s application for a c. 500 acre, 165MW, solar generation and BESS development on the west and south sides of Aldington and linked to the Converter station in Church Lane, was accepted by the Planning Inspectorate. Potential further solar development and cumulative effect from EDF In 2024, EDF made a revised application for a 250 acre, 49.9MW solar generation facility, on undulating ground, bordering 2 sides of Church Lane. The application was refused by Ashford BC, with a revised application expected in 2024/early 2025. Should the revised EDF application emerge, there are reasonable grounds for this to be ‘called-in’ by the Secretary of State alongside the Stonestreet Green application and for both proposals to be considered as one in multiple terms, not least of all concerning cumulative impact. The total accumulated industrialisation and its impact on Aldington. The total accumulated area of all the above developments amounts to a massive 830 acres - equivalent to 518 standard size FA football pitches. With that in mind, consider that the Aldington village confine amounts to 34 acres, meaning that the ongoing industrialisation described, not including the Converter Station and with undoubtedly more to follow, will occupy an area more than 24 times the size of the village confine. Even the Stonestreet Green Solar development alone will be more than 14 times larger than the village, located on undulating ground, with little or no prospect of effective mitigation. Shouldn’t this be considered as an inappropriate burden to place on a rural Kent community and the people who live there? Why do the solar developments need to be so dominant and intrusive on the character of the villages and their environs? Why can they not be reduced in size and/or transferred to the more suitable landscape between and around the nearby transport links? ENDS