Representation by Penny Bence
- Date submitted
- 17 April 2024
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I strongly object to the Byers Gil Solar Farm proposal for the following reasons. 1 The use of productive farmland is a very serious concern. Government policy itself states that this should be avoided (highlighted in BBC Countryfile on 07/04/24). Food security is of great importance & has been brought to the fore by the war in Ukraine. Reducing food miles is also an ecological consideration & yet this proposal for Byers Gill will have an opposite effect. Also of note is the Government aim to increase timber production. Farmers are now being required to increase tree planting & provide habitat for indigenous species. The answer is not to remove farming activity. This is a small country & we must use our land resources wisely. Do not waste productive agricultural land with uses that can be accommodated elsewhere. 2.The Byers Gill proposal has been claimed to have been reduced in size due to initial feedback received. There is a great deal of industrial area & disused brownfield sites around the Teesside Area with infrastructure & close to the Hardwick sub-station. Using such brownfield sites & industrial rooves would be much more suitable for a large solar project, but has not been considered or addressed following the initial feedback. In fact, the consultation process has been very poor/lacking. Although promised, questions have not been answered. Flooding is only one which I will detail later. 3.I have chosen to live in the rural village of Bishopton for the last 40 years. This does have some disadvantages of difficulty to access services, but it is my choice. The Byers Green proposals will change this rural setting into an industrial one, with absolutely no advantage to residents. It is unlikely to ever be returned to a rural setting. Given the 40 year life of the proposals, it will not be a rural area again in my lifetime. Why should I have to spend my last years with the noise & disruption of industrial vandalism on the environment? This likely adverse impact on my life is causing me [REDACTED], as you can imagine. 4 The Local Authority designated Bishopton as one of the first conservation areas, in the late 1960s, as it was felt to be so important. The LA has a duty to protect & preserve the setting of a conservation area. Because the Byers Green Solar farm is so large, it has to be referred to central Government to decide. This would indicate that the impact of such large proposals is realised to be much greater. The duty to protect the setting of the conservation area must not be dismissed or ignored, because the proposal is being considered by central government. 5 The visual mitigation proposed is inadequate & will not even be of much effect for 20 years, until some planting starts to grow properly. Nor can tree planting be carried out too close to the proposed solar panels as trees will shade them. All the visualisations of necessity are from public spaces. This cannot address the impact the solar farm proposals will have on the outlook from resident’s homes, especially upper storeys. Our historic house is in the centre of the village & has a 3-storey rear projection with high ceilings, built in 1866. These main rooms have a view directly towards the grey barn pictured on visualizations (2,4 & 5). The location of the bulky battery storage containers were not shown, as the information on the positioning of these was so tardy. As well as the noise & continued disruption (for ongoing maintenance of the panels) & increased heavy traffic, even our garden outlook becomes industrial. 6 Trees and managed woodland are so important for mitigation of the effects of climate change. They can filter wind. The increase of severe storms in recent years shows that this is of ever more importance. Another very significant impact of trees is in reducing flooding & especially flash flooding, which the Byers Green proposal will certainly increase. (The point will be made later in this submission). Trees also capture carbon & if the timber is used for building or product purposes, that carbon remains locked up. More carbon is locked into the soil than into the planting grown (both trees & arable crops). The Byers Green proposal removes the topsoil from about 200 acres, thus releasing all the locked carbon. This is not a sound ecological proposal. Another site should be sought for solar panels. Existing industrial sites are available in the area as mentioned. 7 The battery stores are necessary for several reasons. a) The scheme is too large to send generated electricity directly to the grid once inverted & b) Virtually all electricity will be generated in the summer months during daytime - when the demand for power is considerably less. At least wind turbines are not affected by daylight & the wind tends to be greater in winter, when power demand is greater. 8 The North East of England is not a sensible place to site a large solar farm. It has considerably fewer sunshine hours than further south. All meteorological data will support this. The Applicant appears to be merely seeking a short-term self-advantage as land is cheaper. It does not benefit the country in terms of the best production of solar energy. 9 The battery stores themselves are a significant fire risk. The response to this risk does not appear to have been adequately considered by the applicant. How the fire or explosion could impact neighbouring residents & farms & their safety should be given priority. 10 The disruption & noise to residents’ lives will be immense & will continue for over 40 years. Not only will the construction phase involve digging up through the centre of Bishopton, potentially harming historic building (with only 150mm deep foundations) & mature trees, but the heavy goods traffic involved will be vastly increased & will continue after the year-long construction. I was informed by the Applicant that it is intended to wash every solar panel once a month. There will be other maintenance needed as an ongoing disruption. 11 This disruption of heavy traffic will also have some other consequent impacts on the lives of Bishopton residents. The village already suffers from flooding on all approaches but one. This is the small road from the western end of the village up to Stillington crossing. There will be many other photos, I am sure, to demonstrate how cut off the village gets several times a year. The road to Stillington crossing, while it does flood, can usually be passed with care. The other 5 routes become impassable. The least flooded route is the one that the applicant now proposes to use for construction in Bishopton. There has been no consideration of how to mitigate the effect of construction traffic on this minor road – which is the lifeline for the village. My question about this has not been answered by the Applicant. 12 Bishopton already suffers from significant flooding on a regular basis. Once the land is saturated the roads flood with run off from the fields. Solar panels will increase the problem & flash flooding. The ground under the panels will be completely compacted by the construction, where it is not underlaid by concrete. The panels are impervious & will angle the runoff into channels & hence have serious & sudden floodings onto the roads surrounding the village. Every new house built has to prevent rainwater runoff onto the surrounding roads. Why should this impactful solar farm be any different? 13.Eight other solar farm schemes have already been approved around the Bishopton area. The Byers Green proposal is 4 times the size of any of these. The cumulative effect of the already approved schemes is significantly damaging to my quality of life already. I regularly cycle to Newton Aycliffe from Bishopton. The journey is becoming increasingly unpleasant with the current construction of approved solar schemes. This will be untenable, if countryside footpaths then become bounded by security fencing, as is proposed under the Byers Green proposals. The cumulative effect of the already approved solar farms with the immense scale of the Byers Green proposals must not be allowed to impact further on this small rural area. Please refuse these proposals & demonstrate that consultation should take proper note of the feedback received.. Direct the applicant to seek better located & more ecologically sound locations for their unreasonable proposals.