Kingsway Solar Ltd will be holding a public information event in West Wratting Village Hall from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm on Saturday 16th November. This will be staffed by genuine employees of Kingsway Solar. Please go along and ask questions.
One key person who will be there is David Vernon, their head of large projects. West Wratting Parish Council had a 2.5 hour question and answer session with him on Tuesday 12th November (this will be reported here soon). Do go along to ask him your questions and to tell him how you feel about the project.
From everything we’ve read and heard, this consultation period is the best opportunity we have to influence the design of the solar farm so that if it does go ahead its impact on our lives will be minimised.
Do tell Kingsway your overall feelings about the solar farm, but for this consultation exercise focus on giving Kingsway constructive suggestions that the designers can try to incorporate into the design to influence it for the better. It’s probably better to say say “it should be like this because …”, rather than “if it’s like that it’ll be terrible”.
For example, tell them that in order to try to minimise its impact on the landscape and your quality of life:
- That all footpaths across the site should be preserved. Even better, the network of footpaths should be extended to compensate us.
- That all infrastructure should be positioned well back from footpaths and other boundaries around the site, and that all security fencing should be obscured by hedgerows.
- That West Wratting has chosen to have no street lighting, so to fit with this the solar farm must not have always-on security lighting at night.
- That there should be a buffer zone that prevents any infrastructure from being built close to houses. Tell them how wide you think that buffer should be.
- That because of your concerns about safety all storage batteries should be positioned even further from where people live, e.g., at least 500 metres away, and out of sight.
There many are other constructive suggestions you could make. We’ll be writing more about this soon.
The best time to protest about the solar farm is after the consultation period, and that protest should be aimed at people who might listen – politicians, journalists and the electorate. For now use this opportunity to tell Kingsway how their solar farm should be built to be least intrusive into your lives.
Simon
P.S. Have a look at the new Kingsway Solar Community Action website
