Representation by Sarah Harker
- Date submitted
- 21 March 2024
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
The village in which I am resident will be hugely impacted by these proposals both during and after construction, and I fully object to the plans in their current form. Concerns include, in no particular order, loss of visual amenity, including for children using the recently installed playground, creating a more industrial than rural feel; restricted access to my own home during the construction phase; restricted use of local lanes for recreational purposes during the construction phase, with deterioration in visual amenity afterwards; Significant noise and light pollution during construction and once installed. Many people including myself find the low level hum of industrial fans intolerable hence choosing a rural location to live; loss of civil liberty / privacy infringement should security cameras be deployed; negative impact on biodiversity and wildlife during construction and after especially should hard security fencing be used; loss of habitat - for example lapwings which have been regularly seen in fields close by the village prefer open land, and birds of prey will find it difficult to hunt over a field of panels; Risk of serious electrical fires, at a significant distance away from nearest fire stations, which could prove catastrophic during a period of hot dry weather; distance from nearest substation is considerable and will lead to months of travel disruption and danger for the many cyclists who use local roads, there is no demand for developers to fund resurfacing after trenches have been dug through roads and patching tends to deteriorate quickly leaving users of the country roads with potholes risking damage to cars, or themselves in case of cyclists, and the local authority with the road repair bill Specifically for Bishopton, the road passing through the village (The Green and High Street) is lined with mature trees which could be damaged or even killed if trench digging for cabling to the substation interferes with their roots There is no guarantee that land will be restored to its former condition, with all infrastructure of the the solar farm removed, at cost to the developer or land owner, once the solar farm reaches end of life. While I am not against solar power I do not believe using farmland in rural areas - with zero benefit to local residents other than the site land owners - is the best way to deploy this renewable energy option. There are thousands of new homes being built without solar panels on their rooftops for example. I also do not believe there has been any robust future planning for when solar farms, panels and infrastructure reach end of life.