Representation by Paul Edmund Nobbs
- Date submitted
- 7 April 2024
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I object and am 100% against the Byers Gill Solar development. Solar farms are nothing to do with farming, they are industrial solar power stations which are located in completely the wrong location, in the case of Byers Gill, a rural location, taking up valuable agricultural land. Dr. John Constable of the Renewable Energy Foundation stated in an article in The Daily Telegraph on 3rd April 2024 ‘The whole point of farmland is that it is already a solar farm, and a green one at the. It turns sunlight into food energy for people, insects, voles and birds. The fact that some green campaigners would rather have low grade electricity than high quality British farm produce shows how bizarrely irrational environmentalism has become.’ Everyone’s picture postcard impression of this beautiful country is of stunning green rolling fields surrounding small hamlets and villages; this is our England. If you turn this landscape into industrial land, you are destroying the landscape for ever. If Green energy is to be the way forward, solar power stations are not the answer as they are very inefficient; the average energy produced by a solar farm is only 11% of the installed capacity, compared to wind turbines out at sea, generating 40% installed capacity throughout the year. Furthermore, it takes approximately 200 acres of solar panels to produce the same electricity as one offshore wind turbine. Solar panels generate very little energy during the winter days, zero electricity is produced during the long dark winter nights, whereas wind turbines produce more electricity 24/7 during the winter when demand for electricity is high. Nine solar power stations have been approved/are under construction in the immediate surrounding area amounting to the loss of 1251.5 acres grade 3 agricultural land. Byers Gill would be in addition to the nine previously consented developments making this the largest close concentration of solar farms not only in the UK but in Europe. The cumulative effect of such a large-scale development will be overwhelming, with residents looking out over, not one but several solar power stations and be an unacceptable destruction of the landscape. The resulting landscape will be industrialised and have a dramatic effect on resident’s mental well-being. The UK government states the need to look after our mental health by getting out into the countryside to reduce stress, improve mood and overall well-being. Residents in Great Stainton and the surrounding area completed surveys as part of the consultation process. Not one resident completed a survey in favour of the development 100% were against. The siting of Byers Gill is proposed solely based on access to the grid and agreement from landowners whose support has been gained by a ‘carrot’ dangled in front of them amounting to an offer, with too much money at stake to turn down. There seems to be a lack of logic to the choice of location, based on the fact that a 4500 acre brownfield site, on the site of Redcar Steelworks is less than 20 miles away. How can we afford, as a nation to lose up to 2000 acres of valuable farmland? UK food security was debated by MP on 21st March. According to the latest annual statistics from the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs, the UK only produced 58% of its own food in 2022, much less than our country requires. Alarmingly, the UK imports 80% of our fruit, yet we are assured the UK government supports the production of food and UK food security. Why then take prime agricultural land and turn it into industrial land? This in turn will have a devastating effect on the wildlife in the surrounding fields such as lapwing, curlew, hares and red deer. The value of properties will be badly affected. Property values have been proven to fall as a result of being in close proximity to solar panel developments. The village is currently surrounded by an idyllic rural landscape with views of the Cleveland hills. This will be transformed into an industrial view with array of glass panels to the East and South without any chance of screening due to the undulating nature of the land. According to The Landscape Institute Technical Guidance Note 2/19 Residential Visual Amenity Assessment (RVAA) section 5 - Summary and Conclusions section 5.1 States ‘The purpose of carrying out a Residential Visual Amenity Assessment (RVAA) is to form a judgement, to assist decision makers, on whether a proposed development is likely to change the visual amenity of a residential property to such an extent that it becomes a matter of ‘Residential Amenity’. Potential effects on Residential Amenity are a planning matter and should not be judged by landscape architects’. Furthermore section 5.2 states - The threshold at which a residential property’s visual amenity becomes an issue of Residential Amenity has sometimes been described as the point when ‘the effect(s) of the development on the ‘private interest’ is so great that it becomes a matter of ‘public interest’’. The planning system is only concerned with public interest. In certain circumstances, however, the effect of the development is so great that it is not in the public interest to create or allow ‘such conditions’ where they did not exist before. This is sometimes referred to as the ‘public interest test’. Based on these guidelines, the scale of the Byers Gill Development along with the nine additional solar power stations means the cumulative impact of so many solar panels will without question be a matter of ‘public interest’ creating conditions where they did not exist before. I believe therefore the visual impact of the solar developments constitute a planning matter. Battery storage units are sited along hedgerows in the fields where I walk my dog behind our property. The battery units are 2.7m high by 12.5 m long and are arranged in lines of three units equating to a 40m array. The health and safety implications of 40m + of several lots of battery storage units in very close proximity to properties in Great Stainton is a grave concern as there is documented evidence of batteries exploding, catching fire and not being extinguished due to the chemical nature of the fire. Batteries furthermore require large bunds around them in case of explosion, to try to contain the toxic chemicals which would otherwise contaminate the land and watercourses. There is no good reason to erect these near residential properties, they belong in industrial sites, away from the general public.