Proposed Sookhome Solar Farm

[Caz]

Now here is a good idea
http://www.africlandpost.com/africas-la ... city-mall/

There you go. That's a much better idea and who would complain about carport roofs having solar panels. Not me! Although I'd think in Africa, they get a bit more sunshine than we do and need car ports to shade vehicles from the sun.

[Mark Burton]

TW Solar have not consulted with the local community at all about this proposal. It is actually a requirement that they do this, but they chose not to. Instead they quietly gathered reports over the last year for ecology, flood risk strategies, residential receptor impact etc.

I assume they didn't communicate with us as every property within the small hamlet of Sookholme has moderate or greater visual impact. Apparently we have no historical importance, but have four Grade I and II properties, listed in the Domesday book, a Roman Tile kiln site which is actually in one of the fields proposed for the solar panels. We also have a SSSI status for Sookholme Brook, but these are of no importance to TW Solar.

Visual impact is the tops of each array at 3 metres height, when our hedges are 1.5 metres tall. Let's not forget high security fencing with CCTV cameras mounted at 4 metres. I'm not sure what they are looking to do about the long sections of perimeter with no hedgerow. Apparently, we can grow the hedges to 4 metres high, which will shroud most of my land with shade, making it an oppressive environment.

The land for this proposal is Grade 2 agricultural, producing cereal crops such as wheat, barley and rape seed. Using an average yield over the 25 year lifespan of the solar farm, we will lose 3,600 tons of grain production from this land. The report TW Sokar presented States it is currently used for cultivation of turnips.

I am all for renewable energy, but this is not an ideal site for over 40,000 solar panels. They do contain cadmium, which is not ideal and cannot be recycled easily. The inverter and sub stations, constructed in GRP sheds, do not match what we have had to comply with on our properties for Conservation standards and there is risk of soil contamination should oil leak from the high voltage enabling equipment. I doubt very much that this land would be re-instated for agricultural use should this go ahead.

I could go on, rambling about this application as there are other significant reasons it shouldn't go ahead.

Do a quick add up of the solar farms within a 5 mile radius, plus the wind turbines and we are generating electricity for almost 12,000 homes. lets not forget it's only the ' finance investors' making money from the feed in tariffs which these projects bring. These organisations have no interest and care not about the impact this make to our rural community at all.

[Westmorland]

This is the solar farm at Edwinstowe rejected by Newark and Sherwood District Council

http://www.chad.co.uk/news/local/solar- ... -1-7458160


Warsop Parish Council have opposed the planning application at Sookholme

I hope Mansfield District Council planning committee will take note of the vast objections there are to this application and refuse planning permission.

Sookholme is a lovely historic village and we would all like it to remain so

Warsop has taken its fair share of solar panels with the former Welbeck Collliery pit tip now a solar farm

[BigAl]

It all boils down to being a NIMBY

Time for me to drop out of this methinks

[Westmorland]

It all boils down to being a NIMBY

Time for me to drop out of this methinks

Big AL From information that the Parish Council found out from local residents at their September meeting was as follows

The land belongs to someone who lives in London

A smallholder at Sookholme farms the land and if it goes ahead then himself and anyone he employs will loose their jobs and income

It would also not fit in with the historic village area

It is not acceptable for someone who doesnt live here to sell land and put someone out of work

[Caz]

Al, I don't think it's a case of NIMBY. It's a case of 'enough it enough'. We already have acres of solar panels in the parish that look pretty awful, even on the old pit tip site.

My concerns are still the same as they've always been because nobody can give me satisfactory evidence that they're as good or as clean as the developers are selling them to be. Not enough is known about solar panels and the whole industry just hasn't been thought through. I was alarmed but not surprised at the rate other local solar farms have shot up and the lack of consultation with the public. Green belt should mean 'green belt', as in 'land used for forest, agriculture or outdoor leisure'.

[BigAl]

Agreed Cas, but when the Meden Vale site was erected did they get support from others who it diddn't affect ? NO so why should another place be treated any different ?
The NIMBY culture certainly seems to be growing and then everyone complains that there are no jobs How can any jobs be created when all people do is say we don't what this or that Go and build it somewhere else.

I personally think wind farms are the answer for the Uk anyway as the amount of sun you do have is minimal, as Mike pointed out, and the sighting of the "farms" needs to be looked into but i would prefer to see this sort of thing built instead of the power stations that are now going to be build by the French and Chinese using their technology, equipment and work force and paid for by you and i.

If the government and the big companies want it to happen it will happen as they make the profit from it.

[Caz]

Al, that's exactly what I meant when I said I was concerned about the lack of consultation. These sites are being constructed almost overnight before anyone can blink, let alone object. I'm sure there would have been opposition to the Meden Vale site if people had known about it before the plans had been passed, in fact I did question it but it was already too late.

On the other hand, people might have learnt that by not objecting to the pit tip site, it's opened the flood gates. I don't live in Meden Vale and I don't live in Sookholme but if I'd known about the Meden Vale site I would have said exactly the same as I'm saying about Sookholme.

[Tomas Drouty]

The difference between the MV site and the Sookholme one is the kind of land being used.

MV was ex industrial land - plain and simple.

The land at Sookholme is:
Area of SSI (significant scientific interest).
Grade 2 agricultural land
Historical significance (Roman tile kiln situated on site)

2 completely different land types and therefore not prudent to compare the two.

[Caz]

The pit tip isn't the only solar farm in that area. There are more around Gleadthorpe and Budby that seem to have just sprung up quietly, some are on agricultural land. We're surrounded by them and we are by no means the only area with solar farms but our electricity bills are getting no lower. So either these farms are not generating the power they were forecasting, or someone is making a lot of profit.

Anyway, regardless, 'enough is enough', and it's time we put our feet down.

[Westmorland]

the one near Budby crossroads comes under Bassetlaw District Council

[BigAl]

I am playing devils advocate here.

If the land where the farm is being built on is owned, and it has no bearing on where they live, and the owner of the land has sold the land to the company who are developing the solar farm, or himself involved with the company, then it is their land to do what they want with, when they want to do it. There is really not a lot that can be done against it and you can bet their legal teams had it all sorted before it became public knowledge and they have the full weight of the law on their side. Kickbacks or not being paid in certain circles.
They could still get rid of the farm and the farm workers anyway and leave it barren if the farm does not go ahead which will create another eyesore on the landscape, or sell it on to another company and there could be something else built that is a lot worse than the original plans. For instance an industrial estate or an incinerator plant. How would the population of Sookhome feel then

How would you react If someone came into your property, ie your garden, and started telling you that you cannot plant your favourite flower, veg, trees and your not allowed to have a pond or garden furniture. Would you not kick up and say this is my land and i will do with it as i like " be off with you " in polite terms. I know for certain that i would. As the law of the land says, your property is yours to do what you like with it.

Is this not the same thing but on a slightly larger scale

What would be better for the Warsop area. To have jobs and security for people ( no matter what company / industry are involved ) or have more shops / firms closing as there seems to be more of every time i come home. Then people have to travel or move away for work instead of staying local.

As pointed out earlier in this thread, i do not live there and should not have a say in whet happens there, but i do care and all my family are still there. I want to see the area developed and the town get back to being a thriving community as much as the next man, and those that know me i was involved when i was at home, loads of pointless meetings where lots get talked about and very little done. ( been there and got the "T"shirt so to speak ) , but do you really think it will happen when every time a company puts plans to do this people kick up and say they don't want it to The work and other benefits that come with it then go elsewhere.

Should the people who say they are doing what they can for the area not be concentrating helping the development and not be more concerned with stopping it

[Westmorland]

This is from the Government website regards solar farms and planning
What are the particular planning considerations that relate to large scale ground-mounted solar photovoltaic Farms?
The deployment of large-scale solar farms can have a negative impact on the rural environment, particularly in undulating landscapes. However, the visual impact of a well-planned and well-screened solar farm can be properly addressed within the landscape if planned sensitively.
Particular factors a local planning authority will need to consider include:
encouraging the effective use of land by focussing large scale solar farms on previously developed and non agricultural land, provided that it is not of high environmental value;
where a proposal involves greenfield land, whether (i) the proposed use of any agricultural land has been shown to be necessary and poorer quality land has been used in preference to higher quality land; and (ii) the proposal allows for continued agricultural use where applicable and/or encourages biodiversity improvements around arrays. See also a speech by the Minister for Energy and Climate Change, the Rt Hon Gregory Barker MP, to the solar PV industry on 25 April 2013 and Written Ministerial Statement – Solar energy: protecting the local and global environment – made on 25 March 2015.
that solar farms are normally temporary structures and planning conditions can be used to ensure that the installations are removed when no longer in use and the land is restored to its previous use;
the proposal’s visual impact, the effect on landscape of glint and glare (see guidance on landscape assessment) and on neighbouring uses and aircraft safety;
the extent to which there may be additional impacts if solar arrays follow the daily movement of the sun;
the need for, and impact of, security measures such as lights and fencing;
great care should be taken to ensure heritage assets are conserved in a manner appropriate to their significance, including the impact of proposals on views important to their setting. As the significance of a heritage asset derives not only from its physical presence, but also from its setting, careful consideration should be given to the impact of large scale solar farms on such assets. Depending on their scale, design and prominence, a large scale solar farm within the setting of a heritage asset may cause substantial harm to the significance of the asset;
the potential to mitigate landscape and visual impacts through, for example, screening with native hedges;
the energy generating potential, which can vary for a number of reasons including, latitude and aspect.
The approach to assessing cumulative landscape and visual impact of large scale solar farms is likely to be the same as assessing the impact of wind turbines. However, in the case of ground-mounted solar panels it should be noted that with effective screening and appropriate land topography the area of a zone of visual influence could be zero.

[mikeC]

... then it is their land to do what they want with, when they want to do it. There is really not a lot that can be done against it ...there could be something else built that is a lot worse than the original plans. For instance an industrial estate or an incinerator plant... As the law of the land says, your property is yours to do what you like with it.

Wow! I didn't realise you had been away from the UK for so long!

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, we have very strict planning laws in place, which prevent all sorts of development. It would take a major reversal in policy to allow any industrial development on farm land, and in my view a solar farm is an industrial development, although apparently its not in the view of local planners. As for developing your own garden, there have been many instances of a property owner buying an adjacent piece of farmland in order to develop a larger garden, only to told it has to stay as agricultural land...

[BigAl]

Think you cold be right there Mike , if thats the way the bloody country has gone methinks i will sell up and stay here in the sun or learn arabic on top of the other languages i have. Got most of the European ones covered

The way it looks from here it really does not matter if its green or brown sites when it comes to the building of houses, even flood planes are being developed though i can't imaging who would buy one knowing your going to get flooded so i presumed it would be the same for industry. As for owning property and land and not being able to do what you want on it then i am not supprised the bloody place is going to the dogs. What happened to an English mans home being his castle