Solar farm plan for our tiny hamlet is crazy'
"Our initial reaction is that it's a crazy place to put it because it's so close the city itself," Mr Hewitt said."There's also the amenity to people who want to come out here into the countryside - they'll have to walk past half a mile of solar panels and another BESS [battery energy storage system] they'll be building nearby - so they're industrialising the whole area. "All these things are knocking on our doors. You start to think you live in an area and everyone wants a piece of it and it's all being gradually eroded away. "We're not against the implementation of clean power but you can literally see the Willington Power Station from here - there's hundreds of acres which could happily cater for all of these solar projects."That is the most appropriate site, the access is already there and it would not be disruptive but with this, it will be chaos on the roads."
The broader issue of solar farms has been raised by Samantha Niblett, Labour MP for South Derbyshire in a letter to Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.In it, she said her constituency was in a "unique situation" due to having two main points of contact with the National Grid at the site of the now defunct Willington Power Station and the functioning Drakelow Power Station. She said this had resulted in her largely rural constituency being "inundated" with applications for battery energy storage sites and solar farms. The letter was prompted by the approval by planners at South Derbyshire District Council for another solar farm in Park Road, Overseal, last month.Niblett wrote to Miliband: "[There is] further concern that despite local planning objections, any appeal to the Planning Inspectorate will be upheld by you and your department, making objections pointless."Miliband has previously said "homegrown power that we control" can cut people's bills and make the UK less reliant on fossil fuels.
Dave Edmunds lives on Arleston Farm, a complex of houses that would be surrounded on three sides by the proposed solar farm.He has joined Mr Hewitt in encouraging other residents to send comments to the council's planning committee."Aside from this application which we would be facing on all sides, within a mile and a half radius of Arleston, there's another BESS application, just over the A50 there's plans for 850 homes, a plan to build a new junction on the A50 and an upgrade for the National Grid with double-sized pylons," he said."The combination of all those things is alien, abhorrent and difficult to accept as a resident."Even if I wasn't, all those things coming to such a small area is simply wrong to me."
The planning agent on behalf of Noventum Power, said: "The site is not subject to any particular local or national designations and has no major constraints which would preclude development. "It is exactly these sorts of sites that should actively be promoted by the council in order to help meet the UK's renewable energy targets. "The proposed development site has clear benefits for renewable energy production, environmental enhancement and no adverse impacts are considered to outweigh these positive impacts."A decision is due to be made on the application by 17 October.
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