Representation by Stephen Robson
- Date submitted
- 3 April 2024
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I object to the proposed solar panel farm – Byers Gill on the following grounds: The prime minister and several ministers have stated within parliament and also in conferences that solar farms would not be built on agricultural land. As a country we are struggling to produce enough food to feed the population, and this is prime agricultural land. These solar farms are being built on agricultural land when there are large amounts of brown field sites around the country that could be utilised. This would be the eighth solar farm in relatively small area which is a blight on the landscape as well as being detrimental to wildlife. I have passed by regularly the nearest solar farm and the state of the road all winter has been a disgrace, covered in mud. The lanes around the proposed site are not suitable for the amount of traffic or heavy plant that would be required for the build. This project would seriously affect my mental wellbeing, I walk the local lane every day at least three times with my dog as well as passing in my vehicle. This solar farm would be huge and would be clearly visible from the lane. Some of the statements made in the planning/information sent out are factually incorrect sheep grazing underneath the panels would not happen as the grass would not get the light to grow. Wildflower meadows underneath for the same reason would not thrive plus all of the topsoil would need removing and stored as wild flowers do not flourish in fertile soil. The lanes already regularly flood and without crops to utilise the water this could increase and become more frequent. The area in my opinion is an area of outstanding natural beauty and the visual impact would spoil this scenery. As a keen birdwatcher I see many birds daily that nationally are in decline due to loss of habitat and human interference. This would again be taking away a large area of habitat. These are some of the birds I regularly see on some of my walks, barn owls hunt over the fields and are in fact nesting at the moment in a tree in the hedge on this land. A flock of fieldfares and pink footed geese along with oyster catchers and curlew winter in these fields. Other birds include kestrels and sparrow hawks. Partridges breed here, other birds regularly breeding and seen are robins, wrens, hedge sparrows, tree sparrows, black birds, song thrush, gold finch, chaffinch, green finch, yellow hammer, great tit, blue tit, long tail tit, skylarks nest in the fields, others include swallows, house martins, chiff chaff, black cap, white throat, red wing, red poll, dunnock, yellow wagtail, pied wag tail, bullfinch and linnet. As previously stated, many of these birds are in decline and the work and loss of habitat will add to this. There is absolutely no need to have as many solar farms as possible in such a small are in the country side.