Representation by Gina Walker
- Date submitted
- 26 January 2024
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
You are turning the a lush farming area in to a Solar panel savannah. In particular reference to the land in Eastrington on your plan ref Block 14 or 2G but also the whole application. I am very concerned about the application by Boom Power to construct the largest solar power wind farm in the UK , of which 519 acres are within our parish which we believe is grade 2 soil land. The using of prime agricultural land on this scale and taking away from food production is unnecessary when there are plenty of brownfield sites to Drax, for example Pollington airfield and the disused concrete factories close to it. Prime agricultural land needs to be protected along with the valuable wildlife that we have in this area. I refer you to the Defra magic map where you will see you are taking up land which is designated as a special site in Eastrington for Lapwing . However across the 3000 acres of your proposal the area is designated special sites for brown Hairstreak, Corn bunting, Curlew, Red shank and Snipe. Also grade 2 land is included in the area. In-line with East Riding council environmental policy ( EN1) we believe the size of this proposal breeches this as the policy states “ Proposals should be of an appropriate scale, density, massing, height and materials and incorporate hard and/or soft landscaping alongside boundary treatments to enhance the setting of the building, public space and views “ Although many of us agree that we need to move away from fossil fuels to renewable energy, we do not agree on the size of this project. Eastrington and surrounding areas already has a large wind farm - consisting of 10 turbines 92.5 meters in height know as Sixpenny wood, with a capacity of 20.5 MW so we feel we are doing are contributions to renewal energy already as a parish. A proposal on this scale would change the landscape of the surrounding area turning an agricultural farming area into an industrial landscape.