Friday 24 October 2014

rural developments

A little bright, orange-red dot appeared in front of a far hedge on the neighbouring farm.  It's the wrong time of year for a combine harvester to be out, and squinting hard at it I worked out it was a digger.  I mentioned the presence of construction equipment to the Systems Administrator, who said that would be for the new solar farm.  I was confused, since I thought the solar farm was going to be in a sunken area once used for gravel extraction, and now containing some rather thin looking horse paddocks on its depleted topsoil, but the SA assured me that that was a different solar farm. I can't keep up.

The SA went for a walk after lunch, and returned reporting that the diggers were indeed there to construct the new solar array.  The SA doesn't think we'll see much of it, given the panels will be 2.5 metres tall, on the other side of a hedge, and facing south.  I'm not so convinced.  The land slopes so that we currently see some of the grass in the field, so once it's covered with solar panels I should think we'll see them instead.  But they will be more or less end on, since if they faced us they'd be pointing due east, not the recommended orientation unless you've fallen victim to a particularly dodgy solar power salesman.

Meanwhile in Bradfield they're due to get 10,000 panels in an array that will be able to power 1,500 homes.  Councillor Carlo Guglielmi, Cabinet Member for Planning and Corporate Services, said that we have to produce fifteen per cent of our energy from renewable sources by 2020, and it has to come from somewhere, and the Bradfield site that's been approved only impacts on two properties (which is fine, unless either of them are your's).  Two proposals in the area have been approved, and another two turned down.

If as a country we're going to use solar power, I'd like to see it installed as a matter of course on far more (if not all) new commercial buildings, instead of taking up farm land.  The space occupied by the footprint of a building hasn't vanished, after all, merely been elevated, so why not use it constructively and make power generation (or a green roof to help with urban rainwater absorption) absolutely standard?  In the meantime, the SA suggested that the new array going up opposite us could be sited there partly to take advantage of the national grid connection already in place for the wind turbine.

Addendum  I thought for a moment that I'd found evidence of a local community welcoming new homes being built, but when I clicked on the headline Backing for new village homes, I found that the backing came from Tendring District Council's planning committee, and that the nine (nine!) new homes had been opposed by Bradfield (them again) parish council on a number of grounds.  In Lawford, where a site for 360 homes has been put forward in the latest draft of the Local Plan, residents aren't happy about that either.  I can see why the planners would favour the Lawford site, since it's walkable to the mainline station at Manningtree.  Harwich just pips Lawford to the post, with 364 homes mooted, and residents aren't happy with that either.  As things stand they do have a point: there aren't many jobs in Harwich, and the A120 is an awful, dangerous road.  It might have got dualled under section 106 if Bathside Bay had gone ahead, but not on the proceeds of 364 homes.

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