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Public Consultation - proposed Solar Farm Rhosygadfa

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I have already submitted my objection to the change of use for this land from farming and agricultural use (for which it has always been used) to industrial use, and it is important to send comments directly or via their website to the Shropshire Council Planning Authority http://planningpa.shropshire.gov.uk/online-applications/

Will the meeting on the 27th be held at the Pavilion in St. Martin's Road please?

 

 

 

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Parish Council Meeting went well although One or Two members looked bored - maybe they wanted to go home early?!!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that the Council have made it a planning condition for ANY new build in Gobowen to have solar panels fitted.

Many Councils now stipulate that they MUST be fitted. If the S C C are so keen to achieve their objective for alternative energy supply, why don't insist on solar panels being fitted to ALL new builds - domestic, industrial, agricultural, and business in general?

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Agreed, but surely Parish Councils can make suggestions? S C C (Shropshire County Council) can make justifiable design demands without any difficulties!

Read an article yesterday - worth considering :

Imagine if you were thinking of buying a new house, and found it didn't have a shower and wash basins in the bathroom. And they hadn't bothered to put electricity plugs and light sockets in the spare bedrooms. If you wanted these items you would have to fit them yourself. When you asked the salesman about this skimping on essentials, he said it saved you £3000, so you should be grateful. This wasn't so far from the state of things as recently as the 1960s. Many homes did not have central heating. It had to be messily added on a few years later, and at considerable cost.

Today we expect new homes to be finished with those details throughout. So why are most new homebuyers deprived of an additional, and very useful, feature, a source of free energy that will continue to deliver, with little or no maintenance for many years to come?

I think making volume builders fit solar panels to all new homes is such a blindingly obvious, and simple, green initiative by the government that I struggle to fathom why they don't do it. It's even more puzzling when you consider those panels could help the UK meet legally-binding Co2 reduction targets. In the village where I live, I've noted the outbreak of shiny panels on roofs, from old to newish, over the past four years. They are on former council houses, 19th century cottages, and all sorts of postwar properties and some shops and industrial buildings.

The only place you don't see panels is on historic, often listed properties (understandable), and on the roofs of those several hundred brand-new homes built over the past four years or so.
Quite baffling.

The builder, I'm sure, will have done whatever building regulations dictate to achieve energy efficiency. There will be double glazing, hot tank lagging, attic insulation and draught proofing. But not a single solar panel, unless the buyers fitted them themselves afterwards. And retrofitting is actually less likely because the last thing new owners want to do is shell out on an add-on to a new house, particularly one they could have had in the first place, after they have arranged the mortgage and started the repayments.

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Hope I wasn't one of the two bored looking members Bethan!   I probably just have that sort of face and I promise you I wasn't bored but very concerned that we do our utmost to preserve our wonderful heritage in the form of the beautiful Shropshire pastureland and countryside in general and also to maintain our farmlands for what they should be used for - FARMING.

 

As for solar panels on appropriate housing I am most certainly all for that as it makes common sense and I endorse your comments one hundred percent.

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Maybe you could ask for the Parish's Neighbourhood Plan or its Parish Plan to be updated by the Parish Council?  Shropshire Council have to take that into account at planning stages.  

Couldn't agree more that we should insist that all new build has solar panels and passive heating. You can get solar roof tiles which look just like ordinary tiles too.  Personally I am waiting for solar panels to become available that are light weight enough to go on the roof of our victorian house.  Also we await the development of a system to feed power down from there which doesn't damage tiles by drilling through them (and hence create cracks and leaks).  

Edited by Maggie

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I cannot find a Neighbourhood Plan for Gobowen & Selattyn Parish Council in the public domain.

Oswestry Town Plan up to 2020 makes no reference to alternative energy as an objective to reduce CO2 omissions. Very regrettable.

The monitory contribution, originally offered by the Elgin Developers for the Solar Farm to the Parish Councils, has now been withdrawn, so there is even less benefit to the local community. However, the new housing developments in Gobowen will yield very high CILs for the Shropshire County Council. Maybe this could be reduced ever so slightly to encourage the developers to install Solar Panels on the roofs?

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Just read this in the Documents - Background papers - 'FURTHER INFORMATION RE NOISE' on the new application (15/03975/FUL)

Dear Kelvin,

Following the comments of the Public Protection Officer please find in the below email further information in respect of noise and mitigation.

As far as I am aware there are no other outstanding issues at this point. Could the remaining consultees please be chased up as their consultation expiry date passed a number of weeks back.

My client has informed me that it is absolutely pivotal that the application goes to the 22nd December 2015 North Planning Committee in order to allow a build out prior to April 2016 (if approved). The project cannot extend beyond this timeframe due to the ROC subsidy cuts due to come into force at the start of April 2016.

Please do contact me at the earliest opportunity should you require any further information.

Kind regards

Nick

Putting pressure on the Planners AGAIN - I hope Kelvin's shoulders are broad enough!!

 

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PLANNING MEETING - TUESDAY 22nd DECEMBER SHIREHALL

PLEASE MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO ATTEND TO SHOW SOLIDARITY TO THE OBJECTIONS

See below for details :

TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING ACT 1990

 

PLANNING REFERENCE:

15/03975/FUL

 

DEVELOPMENT PROPOSED:

Construction of a solar farm to include solar panel arrays, substation inverters, a primary substation, and perimeter stock fencing

 

SITE LOCATION:

Land At Rhosygadfa, Gobowen, Shropshire, , .

 

APPLICANT:

Mr David Meehan

 

This application will be considered by the Northern Planning Committee on 22nd December 2015 commencing at  2.00pm At Shirehall, Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY2 6ND

The recommendation -  Grant Permission.

You can find out if anyone has registered to speak for / against the proposal or if the committee members will be carrying out a site visit at the property by contacting Emily Marshall on 01743 252726.

A copy of the committee agenda / report is available at Castle View, Oswestry, Shropshire, SY11 1JR or on the Councils website, www.shropshire.gov.uk/planning, (select ‘Planning Applications’, then select ‘Planning application process’), 5 days before the committee.

 

 

 

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If this application is allowed to proceed it will be the beginning of the end for our beautiful Shropshire countryside.   The obvious place for solar panels is on council property i.e., rooftops and commercial buildings etc., as well as on private properties which lend themselves to such applications.   The benefit to the community from the potential destruction of our heritage will be miniscule in comparison to the damage caused to the landscape and the loss of agricultural land.

The planning department of the council never seems to respect our heritage and a very good example is the way in which a public lavatory, which looks like a concrete bunker has been erected at the most prominent part of Butcher row, together with the destruction of so much of the town in the 60s and 70s.   One would have hoped that by now the council would have learned its lessons that the majority of the people in Shropshire love their county and do not wish it to be desecrated in the name of greed.

 

The date of 22nd December is most unfair as many people will most likely have left for their Christmas visiting to far away places.

 

Edited by Robmit
Error in copied text

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A certain Mrs. Angela Roberts (WHO LIVES IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE) has submitted her support for the project. She needs to be made aware of the fact that 100’s of new houses are being built in the area and none have been planned to have a single Solar Panel fitted. It should be a condition ALL Planning Applications that these be included. This would bring direct benefits to new home buyers and would not use a square meter of good agricultural land. It would also allow the beautiful Shropshire Rural (and other areas of the country) free for everyone to enjoy. Rambling in between 3 mtr high hedges is not only unsightly, but dangerous!

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I agree with you Bethan.   We all realize that more housing is needed but why on earth councils grant planning for such estates in areas of great National and historic interest rather than on brown field sites of which there are plenty around I can not understand.  Certainly no planning application should even be considered unless it incorporates fitting solar panels on roofs where possible.

As for anyone agreeing for the desecration of very good farming land in our county by the construction of a HUGE SOLAR PANEL FARM which will ruin the local beauty and amenities which have been enjoyed for centuries by locals and visitors is beyond my comprehension; other than that they might possibly have some financial interest in the project.

I wonder if Mrs. Roberts and any of the local councillors live anywhere near a beauty spot which is now possibly going to be desecrated by a new industrial estate of solar panels.

 

Edited by Robmit
To correct an error in typing

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Whilst I am appalled at this dreadful decision I am not surprised in view of the recent desecrations of OUR beautiful county by these so-called planning experts.   Is there any chance that we could appeal?

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Yes Maggie and Simple Simon you are quite right and I would like to know the real reason why!

What is so very different from the proposals at the beginning of the year when the application was refused?   Farmers should farm, not change the use of beautiful agricultural land into industrial sites; if they want to get involved in industry let them go and purchase suitable land like a disused steel works.

The SC has most certainly gone against the wishes of the local parish council and residents!

 

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I totally agree with your comment Meandher.   Any planning authority that would allow the desecration of Butcher Row in our beautiful Shrewsbury by allowing that dreadful war-time bunker appearance of a toilet bunker to be erected needs to be reprimanded and replaced and the same goes for this latest disgrace.

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SO YOU THINK IT'S ALL OVER!!

Well, unbelievably, an appeal has been made on the decision made last JULY! The application at that point was refused.

A new application was submitted for a reduced sized Solar Farm (5MW), and despite many objections, it was approved last December.

NOW an appeal has been published on the 4th February on the JULY decision!!

To view this, the following procedure may help:

1) Viewing Planning Application - Shropshire Council

2) Select 'Viewing Planning Register'

3) Enter in 'Keyword, Reference No. etc' :   14/03946/FUL  and 'click' on 'SEARCH'

4) Select 'Case Related (2)' and 'click' on blue text in 'Planning Appeals(1)'

5) Access 'Documents ( 6)' to view published documents

 

If you wish to continue objecting (as I do!), one can contact the Inspectorate in writing or e-mail

The contact details can be found in the 'START LETTER' in documents

It's also worth reading the 'Appellant's Case Statement' in documents, in particular page 5, para 2.5 below the new maps.

Basically, Elgin want to double the approved project, which was for a 5 MW scheme

The Inspectorate has given very little time to respond, (few days only!) , so PLEASE put pen to paper urgently

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I find this to be an insult to the people of Shropshire and we should all arrange to meet in order to decide on this latest act of greed.    Are there any legal minds out there which would be prepared to assist us fight this or could we all club together to pay for one?

I shall certainly re-submit my original objections for the 2014 application and reinforce my objection to the passing of the 2015 application where there could possibly have been a conflict of interests.

If local residents don’t get together and take action then you can expect many more such applications.

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Everyone please note!

 There will be a Council Meeting TOMORROW - WEDNESDAY 10th FEBRUARY at the Pavillion starting 7pm

Please get as many as possible to make every effort to attend.The least we can do is request yet another Special Meeting to lodge our strongest possible objection

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