Green Party’s walk will visit solar panel sites in country park
Hastings Green Party is inviting local residents on a guided walk to see the sites being considered by Hastings Borough Council (HBC) for a solar farm in the country park.
The walk is this Sunday (December 1st), starting at 10.30am from the top of the East Hill lift. Michael Moor, Chair of the Friends of Hastings Country Park will be present to talk about the issues. Participants are warned that the walk may be muddy.
HBC is proposing to instal solar panels on three sites in the country park and has committed £80,000 to feasibility studies. The Friends of Hastings Country Park oppose the plan, citing a number of concerns including visual impact and the lack of an Environmental Impact Assessment.
Julia Hilton, spokesperson for Hastings Green Party, said: “We are absolutely in favour of increasing local renewable energy generation, but we have serious reservations about installing solar panels in the country park, a natural site so beloved of people in Hastings. We need a town-wide conversation about how Hastings moves to a zero-carbon future, rather than contentious infrastructure projects such as this being imposed from above.”
European Commission Joint Research Centre scientists have worked out that the UK can meet over 160% of its total annual electricity demand from solar power without encroaching upon any protected areas such as Hastings Country Park and the wider High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
The annual 353,064 GWh of UK electricity demand is easily exceeded by the 581,580 GWh of solar energy that can be generated using 100% of the available artificial areas and a 3% use of the available non-artificial and non-protected areas covering just 1.66% of the UK in total.
It turns out that it is not necessary to trash AONBs and other protected areas just for profit.
PV Magazine article: https://www.pv-magazine.com/2019/10/10/is-solar-eroding-too-much-land-the-eu-thinks-not/
After spending £80K of public money just to find out if it is going to happen or not, I would doubt Cllr Chowney et al will telling us it is not favourable to site these panels in the park. Would be rather embarrassing for the Labour party to be told its not a feasible project.
Whatever is said in this very expensive study, I expect the report will be kept from public access and scrutiny like so many reports are.
One I can think of for that area being the Coffey 2 report on the landslip at Rocklands/Ecclesbourne Glen.
Like so many of us, we are not against solar panels and energy but really not on a AONB please. And like the bathing pool site scenario, the public will not have any say on this
Well set out article Russell Hall – but its like water off a ducks back (as the old saying goes) with this council….if it doesn’t fit in with their plans…they will not listen to, look at or read anything to the contrary.,and of course there is the embarrassing £80k (was it more?) spent on one of their famous feasibilty studies…this council just loves spending money on what is basically, advice.We all know that there are more suitable places to erect these panels other than on our wonderful precious and ecologically important Country Park…what is wrong with this council????? Are they really so stupid?