Location of Development: Negative Impacts on Landscape Character

The industrial scale of this utility grade power complex is totally inappropriate, and would engulf our small communities.  It is 287 acres which equates to 23% of the land area in Letheringham!  Both the visual, and audible impact of such would fundamentally change the tranquil character of the area forever.  We believe such developments should be appropriately located: “roofs before rural”, contaminated sites, industrial land, brownfield sites, adjacent to motorways, railways, etc.  We do not believe it should be within a heritage landscape, on agricultural farmland, or in an area prone to flooding, within the heart of rural Letheringham (or Easton).

Nor do we believe that other similar rural areas, where agriculture/open countryside is at the heart of communities, should be turned into Solar Farms (or more accurately: Industrial grade Solar Power Stations!).  The protection of our precious landscapes, within the Deben River Valley, should be a priority, a landscape that should not be subjected to such arbitrary and inappropriate Industrialisation.

The Instagram video, by Katie Hopkins entitled “The Vandalism of the British Countryside” [03/05/25] provides a rare insight into the construction stage of Solar Farms (Power Stations): https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJHfUtdNLie/?igsh=MWhnZWs2NWZ5Y3F6NQ==

"Clustering of development around sub-stations has disastrous consequences for the landscape and local amenity.  The cumulative effect intensifies the harm caused" [The problem with Solar Farms, Factors that should be considered in determining applications, page 2].  If the Letheringham proposal is approved, or indeed proposals in other Deben Valley villages, a dangerous precedent will be set, exposing other such vulnerable and unspoilt communities in East Suffolk.

There is a view that such Industrious development contravenes a duty to protect the intrinsic beauty of our river Deben Valley, visually sensitive skylines and the local distinctiveness/ambiance of our area; as well as being detrimental to both the social and economic (Tourism) well being of the district.  We do not see this “.....new development making a positive contribution to local character and distinctiveness” [NPPF, 210, c].