Representation by Alan Ram
- Date submitted
- 21 February 2024
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
The first issue with the proposed East Yorkshire Solar Farm is its size. It is enormous. More than three thousand acres of rural Yorkshire will be transformed into a photovoltaic power plant. One could imagine a much more modest scheme which recognised and mitigated the downsides for the natural landscape and the people who live in the villages and settlements impacted. There are many negative and destructive impacts of the scheme as proposed. A few of these are: 1. The countryside environment and pleasures associated with it which is why most residents choose to live in this part of East Yorkshire will be destroyed. I can use myself and the [Redacted] the village where I live as an example. A quick look at the map will confirm that we will be hemmed in and overwhelmed by an industrial landscape of tall solar panels and fencing. 2. The fields around Gribthorpe and towards Foggathorpe and Spaldington are used year after year to grow profitable arable crops. The soil has been enriched over the decades and it is completely false to imagine or assert that no crops of any value can be grown. Food security is a very live and important issue. This is not the time to take thousands of acres out of more than adequate farmland out of commission and substitute fields of glass panels. 3. The proposed East Yorkshire Solar Farm presents itself as a temporary feature, but can a blight on the landscape that is intended to have a life of forty years or nearly two generations really be described as temporary? And who imagines that after forty years the depleted soil will be restored to farmland? 4. The great proportion of local roads are narrow or extremely narrow country lanes. They are totally unsuitable for the type and volume of traffic needed to build and then maintain the proposed solar farm. The lanes are inadequate for present demand. The verges are in some places deep mud at present (mid-February).