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, Lympne
Villagers 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 - Sellindge and District Residents Association
