Council officials staging a public consultation regarding plans for renewable energy farms in the Crowland area should take heed what the public are saying, following comments by a Government minister.
Peterborough City Council is hosting the consultation at Newborough Village Hall tomorrow (Friday) regarding plans for solar and wind farms covering 900 acres of prime agricultural land on three farms, which will rob generations of tenant farmers of their livelihoods.
Protestors claim consultations held in the past have been badly publicised.
However, Newborough Landscape Protection group has been drafting letters of objection, so residents and tenant farmers who will be affected can lodge them by the deadline date of January 31 in time for the planning meeting on February 1.
In recent weeks, planning minister Nick Boles wrote to energy minister John Hayes, emphasising “we should be working with communities rather than seemingly riding roughshod over their concerns”.
Mr Boles told the Spalding Guardian: “The whole point of the planning system is to ensure that developments happens in the right places and take into account local concerns.
“That’s why the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) launched a call for evidence to make sure communities can have more of a say over, and receive greater economic and wider social benefits, from hosting onshore wind farms.”
A spokesman for the National Planning Policy Framework said: “Local councils should design their policies to ensure that any adverse impacts of renewable energy developments are addressed satisfactorily, including cumulative landscape and visual impacts.”
Jackie Dugdale, vice-chairman of Newborough Landscape Protection, said: “So far communication from the council has been very poor. Our support is growing, though, because people know if this goes through it will only be a matter of time before it is happening where they live.”
Tomorrow’s consultation is from 2pm to 7pm. For more information, visit newboroughlandscapeprotection.wordpress.com