10 August 2024
Response to National Grid Electricity Transmission plc (NGET) regarding Sea Link Project Further Consultation.
This response set out below is on behalf of SKC Church, the Anglican community of churches for Saxmundham and Kelsale-cum-Carlton parishes and has been agreed by the SKC Church Council
Rob Potter Secretary to SKC Church Council
SKC Church – a brief overview
SKC Church is an Anglican Church Community operating within the parishes of Saxmundham and Kelsale-cum -Carlton. We have a ‘membership’ of around 120 individuals who regularly attend worship but a wider community of support that we provide including running a Community Fridge and Allotment, Toddler Group and the East Suffolk Debt Centre action group. We operate and maintain 3 Medieval church buildings within the parishes with Grade2* listed status. The parish church of Saxmundham, St John the Baptist, is located on Church Hill and is in the immediate vicinity (less than 500M) of the proposed Converter Station site.
We have regular services of worship at St John the Baptist every Sunday with additional prayer and Communion services mid-week on 5 occasions per month.
Our response
We support the development of green energy solutions in line with the push that the Church of England has with its own initiative for ‘net zero’. However, solutions must be based on best value for money, be soundly planned and take due account of the impact on the communities affected by the developments involved.
We object strongly to the proposals made by National Grid and fully support the detailed response compiled by Suffolk Energy Action Solutions (SEAS) contained in the link below.
SEAS-response-to-SeaLink-Stat-Consultation-Final-18.12.23.pdf (suffolkenergyactionsolutions.co.uk)
We do not reproduce the full statement as this has already been lodged by SEAS.
We make the following specific points drawing on our own position and those members of the local community that we represent:
1. There has never been published (to our knowledge) a costed analysis of alternative options including the greater use of ‘brownfield’ access to the Grid, offshore siting of some facilities, locating Converters Stations adjacent to the Grid Access points rather than further inland etc. National Grid are effectively presenting a ‘fait accompli’ proposal that is riddled with flaws and inconsistencies.
2. The location of a Converter Station ‘complex’ adjacent to the market town of Saxmundham is a massive intrusion and will have a major impact both during construction (probably phased over a 10-year period) and subsequent operation. This impact includes construction traffic, noise and light pollution and finally the massive visual intrusion of 26M high ‘hangar’ sized buildings on the edge of our market town. The proposal to bring cables to this inland site from the Friston Grid Access site and then run back out again to the coast appears devoid of any logic except expediency and could only have been dreamed up without any proper analysis of options.
3. The planning application for a single Converter Station at the site when it is clear that the overall plan will be for at least 3 such stations is disingenuous. Planning authorities should insist that a complete plan for the site and its impact must be considered rather than just the single Station.
4. National Government and County Council have taken no preliminary measures to implement traffic alleviation locally (eg upgrading the A12 at Farnham/Stratford St Andrew/Marlesford). The proposed locations of the Grid Access at Friston and the multiple Converter Stations at Saxmundham will impose massive disruption on our local road systems – these Stations being all located on either minor roads or accessed through the town and surrounding villages. We are aware of the proposal for a new, temporary (?), access road from Dorley’s Corner and this will route significant additional heavy traffic through the village of Benhall . All of these will be at a time when construction traffic for the Sizewell C development will also be running at peak level in our locality.
5. Most particularly for our church, the development will likely result in severe intrusion to and disruption of services of divine worship at our church of St John the Baptist with the noise and vibration from the nearby construction work over a prolonged period of time. Modern large construction sites emit high levels of noise from the movement of large machinery with hazard warning beepers. Indeed the latest update to the proposals to include options for Sunday working are viewed with alarm by our Church Council. Our mid-week prayer and Communion services will also incur major disruption.
6. We are concerned at the potential for damage to our Grade 2* church building from vibration from the construction site especially from any pile driving or soil compaction.
7. The historic views across The Layers, Grade II Listed Hurts Hall and the Grade II* Listed St John the Baptist Church, both important landmarks, will be significantly harmed by the 26meter high converter station, access road and bridge, which are all incongruous to their setting and are against the Saxmundham Neighbourhood Plan that notes these particular views are to be protected.
8. No consideration has been given to the impact of these proposals on local businesses. Our area enjoys significant income from tourism, both directly and indirectly and it is inconceivable that this will not be significantly disrupted for many years. There appears to be no accounting of this impact nor any proposal for alleviating the damage thus caused.
Conclusion
The plan proposed by National Grid appears to be flawed in its conception and without proper analysis of options. We are not competent to propose alternative courses of action but despair at the lack of intellect in this plan which will result in massive disruption and blight to our locality and expenditure for our nation on a sub-optimal solution to meet our needs for green energy.