Representation by Christopher Paul Smith
- Date submitted
- 5 May 2024
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I wish to register Interest in this scheme and provide comments to object to it. I grew up in the small village of Bishopton. It is and has been for many years a rural area. I now live in Kent and have witnessed first hand the devastating effects these solar farms have on once picturesque landscapes. I am a supporter of renewable energy in all its forms but there needs to be a much more carefully coordinated plan on how these monstrous power generation schemes are imposed on rural agricultural landscapes. If large scale solar is the best we can do, which is definitely not the case, then its location must be considered a large scale industrial development and receive the same scrutiny as any other power generation facility. The already approved and in construction solar power near Faversham in Kent is just one example of this. I would urge the inspectors to look at this and consider carefully what is being unleashed on Englands green and pleasant land. The local community does not benefit in any way and is left to suffer from the construction and disfiguring power generation infrastructure turning what was a rural landscape into and industrial power generation scheme with total disregard to its effects on the community. There appears to be a goldrush mentality in the planning and rollout of these schemes with a first past the post being rewarded with subsidies and preferential rates for what little power is actually generated. I am sure many other registrations will highlight the numerous inefficiencies and reasons not to use large scale solar power generation plants. From the outside looking in the only real beneficiaries are landowners who will be paid significant sums for rental of the land used to site large scale solar developments. Many of these landowners were friends during my years living and growing up in Bishopton, these developments will inevitably split communities, create huge bad feeling with landowners profiting from the solar power station developments whilst communities must suffer the financial and profound hardships resulting from the transformation of a rural community into an industrial power generation scheme.