Representation by John Newington
- Date submitted
- 12 September 2024
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Energy security and sustainability is a very important national issue. Food production is equally, a very important issue for national security and sustainability. I personally consider, we should exhaust all other areas that are not agriculture production land, such as above car parks, on roofs and on non agriculture land, before we take large areas of agriculture land for realistically, the sole use of the production of solar energy. I accept this may take time and in the relatively short time, i.e. 40 years, it may be “the least worst decision” to temporarily use agriculture land for energy production, via solar panels, but this must be agreed as a short term arrangement, until other methods of energy production are found that do not require large areas of productive agriculture land to be used for the production of energy via solar panels. I consider no one wants agriculture fields close to where they live to be industrialised with solar panels and batteries storage, it is unfortunate for a purely selfish reason, that this large temporary development is being considered around the villages of Aldington and Mersham. Before any possible approval, strong and robust guarantees must be supplied, that are fully enforceable, with no room for any contract slip or creep over the lifetime of this temporary scheme, reportedly, 40 years. The company on completion of the full term of this temporary scheme, reportedly 40 years, shall return the land to the condition “as was” before this project, removing all traces of the infrastructure, foundations, roadways and any unforeseen contamination. Fully restoring the land to agriculture, for the production of food. If this cannot be set in stone, then the project must not be considered, as it will be inevitable that slippage and creep of the contract over time will occur and used as leverage to develop the site away from agriculture use.