Dear Residents,
Many of you will now have started to become aware of the recent application by Ecotricity for 6 industrial scale Wind Turbines visibly located amongst our homes and villages on a site at Harringe Brooks. This is in addition to an additional seventh Wind Turbine application that has already been submitted by Mr Price directly behind the homes at Barrow Hill. If successful, their impact on this area will be devastating and there can be little doubt that they will pave the way for further industrial processes to follow. Although the Sellindge and District Residents Association is not against renewable energy in situations where it brings clear benefits to communities, we do maintain that such applications must be done in a sensitive and considered way in full consultation with the local communities they will impact. These applications have clearly not been done in such a manner and therefore it has become necessary for a new Action Group to become established combining all of the local communities.
The new action group, SALVATION: Sellindge, Aldington, LympneVillagers Against Turbines In Our Neighbourhood, will operate as a special part of the Sellindge Residents Association and will seek to combine the efforts of residents across Sellindge, Lympne, Aldington and numerous other villages and individuals from across the impacted area.
Many of you will have questions around the application itself and the impact it will have, along with how to prevent it from happening. You can find a great deal of this information on our website, where we have now set up a new Section under the heading: Harringe Brooks Wind Turbine Action Group - see Coloured Section 2 in the right-hand column). This also provides a link directly to the Shepway Planning site that has further details of the actual Wind Farm application, ref Y12/0451/SH.
For those residents without email access, we will coordinate with those distributing the leaflets to get their telephone numbers, so that we can follow up with a call or visit as preferred to assist with the preparation and posting of any letters they wish to send to Shepway Planning.
Despite having had 2 years to prepare their application, the official closing date for our objections is 30th June, giving us very little time indeed and so we must act now! To emphasise the urgency of this campaign, we now have an email address at act4salvation@gmail.com that can be used for any comments, suggestions, queries or offers of support.
I have asked Tony Bosley to Chair this campaign on behalf of the Sellindge Residents Association in order to bring the villages of the area together in a combined and distinct Action Group. Please give him all of the support you can.
We are shortly arranging for leaflets / posters to be finalised and distributed, both in hard copy and via the internet for home printing to share the burden and cost. We will need to co-ordinate this in order to make sure all areas are covered, so please let us know via reply to our gmail address above if you can assist with this in any way - however small. Our first major challenge is to make everyone aware of what is being planned in scale and the impact it will have on us all. Many are aware of the environmental issues, but are many aware of the significant negative impact this will have on house prices in our area?
We do have a great deal of support already, including from our local MP – Damian Collins and hopefully from many of the local Parish Councils across the area, so we are already off to a great start, but need as many as possible to object by letter or by email on the Shepway planning website. Do look at our website for guidance on how to object, as it must be done in a particular way for your vote to count. However, objecting is simple and the more objections we can get registered, the better our chances will be. Do spread the word to neighbours and friends and if you can think of anything else we may have missed or can offer additional support in whatever form, please just let us know. We will continue to update everyone via emails and the website going forward on a regular basis, so if you don't wish to be included on these, or wish for others to be added, please just let us know at act4salvation@gmail.com.
We can win this fight to protect what we have and as local communities together, we will!
Kindest Regards
Ronald Lello
Chairman
