A planning application for a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) on Green Belt land to the north-west of Barnett Wood Lane has caused considerable concern in Ashtead and its surrounding area.
The application (MO/2024/1544) is expected to go to Mole Valley District Council’s Development Management Committee in May.
Objections to the application have been raised by more than 150 local residents, environmental campaigners, conservationists, local ward councillors, Andy Smith and Patricia Wiltshire, and by the Chairman of the City of London Corporation Commons Committee (Benjamin Murphy) as well as countryside groups such as the Surrey Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).
It is planned for the BESS to be linked by underground cable to the electricity sub-station at Chessington and this means that a very great length of Ashtead Common would be negatively affected, particularly the trees along the length of the road between the site of the BESS and Chessington. There would also be unacceptable disruption to local traffic during construction.
Objectors have cited a number of reasons for MVDC to reject the application, including:
· There would be harm to the openness of the Green Belt
· The installation would have a negative visual impact on the landscape
· The lighting and low frequency noise from the installation would have an inevitable negative effect on wildlife and biodiversity generally, and specifically on Ashtead Common (which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and National Nature Reserve), and Rye Brook Meadows wetland (a Surrey Wildlife Trust Local Nature Reserve).
· Planners and developers often fail to realise that noise and light pollution travels considerable distances beyond the boundaries of any development. It is impossible to prevent disruption travelling from such an installation into the depths of Ashtead Common.
· There would be a loss of important wildlife habitat as the site earmarked for development is an important feeding ground for birds, and there would be a threat to ground nesting sites.
· Red List (endangered) bat species would be badly affected.
· The fire risk associated with battery storage systems could be a significant danger to the SSSI and many are concerned about the proximity of the site to housing. The accessibility to fire services is unknown, and infrastructure problems are foreseen.
· The distance of the BESS from the Sub-Station is related to the energy loss in the transmission. It is a grossly inefficient site for a storage facility; a site closer to the Chessington sub-station would mean shorter cables and less energy loss. The developers have chosen a grossly unsuitable and unsustainable location.
Very importantly, the meagre green space between Ashtead and Leatherhead, afforded by open Green Belt, would be significantly impinged upon and possibly opened up for further encroachment. To prevent the merging of Leatherhead and Ashtead, your Independent Councillors recently fought successfully to keep this piece of land open and free from development; and this is included in the now approved Local Plan. Despite the Local Plan, here is yet another attack on the integrity of our villages, and the Green Belt’s purpose of preventing settlements from merging.
Do we want to be part of a continuous band of development from Ashtead right through to Effingham? The attack on our open spaces has been wholly unacceptable and a BESS station would be a huge encroachment on the land between Leatherhead and Ashtead. Furthermore, it has been suggested that there would need to be extensive earthworks on the site if the BESS facility were allowed. This would change the nature of the open land between Leatherhead and Ashtead.
This application has been submitted for Ashtead following its refusal at two sites in Chessington. It does not make sense to have the Battery Energy Storage System so far from the Sub-Station at Chessington, with all the disruption and loss of energy that would entail.
You can see the full documentation for this application and all the letters of objection already submitted to MVDC on the Council’s Planning Portal. www.molevalley.gov.uk/planning-building/search-planning-application/
Your Independent Councillors and the City of London Corporation (owner and manager of Ashtead Common) ask you to make your views known as soon as
possible to Mole Valley District Council. We urge you to write to planners and urge them to reject this proposal.
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