We need your help. Please, please read and share. Sorry it's a bit long.
South Lakeland District Council currently has two planning applications for a Gas power station and Lithium Battery Storage in the rolling countryside at Old Hutton near Kendal.
While the media have been obsessed with election reporting these developments are slipping in under the radar. Also, they occupy an area between the Lake District and Yorkshire National Park so there is not the same protection of the land.
The gas fired power station is 49.99 megawat and has 11 15m high chimneys that will produce smoke and harmful emissions. The company have produced data that negates the effect of emissions but they have used weather data from Shap which has a completely different weather system to Old Hutton so is largely irrelevant. This will be very harmful to the environment. The company has also paid for some very clever surveys which demonstrate that the chimneys will have a minimum visual impact. These are again very misleading as they are taken very close to the site. Anyone further away will have a very good view of it. If you walk your dog on the Helm you'll be able to see it easily.
The Lithium battery storage will be housed in 40 steel containers next to the power plant and will also be visible in the landscape.
The company do not have local knowledge and don't particularly care because they will sell the sites in five years and make their millions then. That is why they didn't know the difference between Shap and Old Hutton.
They also have not decided how the plant will be accessed from the motorway. The current thinking is that the traffic will come via Kirkby. The company estimate 30 large vehicles per day (that's 60 journeys there and back) between the hours of 7am and 8pm.
Access is also a problem if there is a fire. They propose to tap into the high pressure gas main at Old Hutton for the power station. If it blows then a large number (a suggestion of 50 has been made by an industry expert) of fire response vehicles will be needed to access the site quickly. The access to the site does not support this and even if they get there the site itself could not accommodate the number of vehicles needed to put out the fire. As Kendal only has about 3 engines I guess we're stuffed. The fire will burn for a mile around the site.
An industry expert tells us that if the Lithuim Battery storage catches fire it can burn for up to six months. It is almost impossible to put out, you would need to bury it.
A disaster on this scale will affect us all in the area. The site is less than 1km from the primary school, church and village hall. The school and surrounding homes would need to be evacuated for a long period of time. I doubt the school would ever reopen and it would have a devastating effect on farming and tourism in the area.
If you're still with me, thank you. But now I need you to OBJECT. Anyone in the country over 18 can object. If you think it doesn’t affect you please think again, these Gas power stations are becoming an easy way for developers to raise vast profit and they could select a site near you next.
The deadline is very close but you can do it in 5 minutes online and I've included the links to the Old Hutton Parish website that has direct links to the two planning applications. The website says the closing date is 14th but you can still object until 29th. You will need to object to both and should do it for each adult in your household. Just fill in your details, click the 'object' button and type your objection in the 'comments' field. It doesn't have to be very long but please keep it sensible and abuse-free or it will be deleted straight away.
www.oldhutton.org.uk/gas-fired-power-station.html
Please or to access all these features
Please
or
to access all these features
Find conversations happening in your area in our local chat rooms.
Local
Stop Old Hutton Power Station
5 replies
amcglynn · 17/06/2017 14:19
OP posts:
Please create an account
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.