Representation by Wendy Heyhurst
- Date submitted
- 24 March 2024
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
The siting of this solar farm will totally destroy our rural, peaceful conservation village. The panels will be a “blot” on our beautiful landscape and will change the look and feel of our village for ever! Driving into Bishopton now and seeing the fields with flora and fauna is a reminder of what a beautiful village we live in and that we are the guardians of this village. The routing of said cables through the centre of the village will be very stressful and could destroy the trees on either side of the road, our journeys will have to be planned well in advance to accommodate the HGV vehicles as well as other traffic, the roads are full of pot holes now so with the heavy traffic used for building the solar farm it will be even worse. There will be no thought given to the wear and tear of our vehicles. I will lose the use of our gardens where I go to relax as I will be able to hear the constant noise of the HGV traffic, the noise from the battery stations and the security lighting. Not to mention the dust that these Lorries will produce. Effectively we will be living in the middle of an industrial site, which is not good for my or any of the villages mental well being. No thought has been given to that fact that some residents work nights and will therefore be constantly disturbed with noise from HGV Lorries and construction on site. For many of us, including myself, our properties are our biggest asset and this solar farm will and has already devalued our properties. Instead of destroying our lives and our village these panels should be sited in industrial areas, on commercial properties roofs, on land that is not suitable for growing crops or grazing animals or even out at sea, not in a conservation area. The developer has given us no confidence in doing what they say they will do eg. booklets about the development were left in a town that has nothing at all to do with where the sites areas. Consultation with the residents has been very poor to a point of non existent. When a pop up meeting was organised we were told by the developers a time and place where they would be to find when we got there they were nowhere to be seen, we did eventually find them, this seemed very much a tactic to put us off. The fact that we have been told that sheep and hens will graze between the panels and wild flower meadows will thrive is not correct information and apparently although it shows in their brochures said activity will take place they are not legally bound to doing this so is this another false promise. Our conservation village has a history dating back to medieval times surely we should be protecting this history and not destroying it with a Carbunkle!