Representation by Alison Taylor
- Date submitted
- 20 February 2024
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I am very concerned about this project. I believe it is far too big and in the wrong place. It will cover 3500 acres of productive farmland and turn a rural landscape into an industrial one. There are many brownfield sites that would be more suitable as well as acres of roof space. This huge development will engulf 5 small villages. Our home and business for example will be squeezed in between two huge fields of panels (300 acres) to the north and south as well as a cable connection to the west. I am worried about the effect on our quality of life. We choose to live in the countryside to be away from the noise and stress of living in the city but with this the tranquillity of the area could be destroyed forever. 40 years is NOT temporary. Removing 3500 acres of productive farmland (and yes all the proposed fields are currently farmed) at a time when food security is paramount is nothing short of madness. The cumulative affect on the local landscape will be enormous. If this was a series of smaller applications instead of one huge one each would have to be dealt with separately and some or all could be refused on the grounds of cumulative affect. The roads all around the designated site are all single track roads bordered by ancient hedgerows and trees. The current roads could not support hundreds of heavy lorries without having a serious adverse effect on the local communities. The verges have our utilities beneath them. The proposed traffic management scheme with road closures and traffic lights will seriously disrupt the daily lives of residents for the whole of the construction period which we have been told could be up to two years. I am concerned about the prospect of noise and vibrations for the construction period and thereafter from the panels themselves. The panels are so close to our home we will be bound to hear any noise or activity. The lorry movements alone will cause serious disruption and we are very worried about the construction methods - will they be using piling for example? What about cameras and lighting at night? The local footpaths will be severely compromised by this development which is a huge shame as they are part of the Howden20 route which is enjoyed by many people from all over the area. Flooding is a concern. This year after the heaviest rain experienced for many years there is low level flooding throughout the designated site. Standing water on the fields has caused run off into gardens where it has never happened before. Parts of our garden have been under water for weeks. Compressing heavy clay soil and filling it with concrete will only make the situation far worse. I am very concerned about the wildlife in the area. We have deer, brown hares, foxes, badgers, barn owls, tawny owls, little owls, several species of bats, buzzards, red kites as well as many ground nesting birds such as curlew, lapwing and skylark all around our home. The area is abundant with wildlife and yet Boom Power's representatives informed myself and many others that there wasn't any wildlife on the designated fields. Putting up high impenetrable fencing all around the sites will mean that larger animals will have to travel further causing a greater risk of traffic accidents. Invasive fencing so close to homes is a massive worry. Our outlook across open fields will become an outlook over a vast power station. The buffer zone we have been offered is tiny and just consists of grassland - how is grass going to mask anything? Even if trees are planted they need to be mature. Boom told us that any trees planted would be growing in 15 years but that is of no help at all. There are concerns about criminality. The panels contain copper and other metals that are greatly lucrative to criminals. Could this mean that our peaceful rural area could be further affected by crime and the methods to prevent this could be even more detrimental such as higher chain link fencing instead of basic deer fencing? The fencing and cameras will be a huge invasion of our privacy because we live so close. And finally and by no means least I have great concerns abut the effect on both mine and my family's mental and physical health. We are already being put under mental stress with this hanging over us and that will only get worse. It is a scandal that ordinary people can be faced with something as enormous as this and yet feel entirely powerless. In conclusion I strongly object to this application on the grounds that it will have a huge detrimental effect on mine and my family's residential and visual amenity and our quality of life for all of the above reasons. I would be very grateful if you could take all of these points into consideration before making a decision.