And as a community, this is our last chance to be heard...

Ways you can get involved

Or alternatively, you can lodge your objection by emailing Northumberland Council direct at:
planningcomments@northumberland.gov.uk

Please do make sure you add your full name, postal address and reference number: 23/01717/FUL

For more info about our campaign or help with lodging your objection, drop the campaign team an email at:
info@stophighfieldenergypark.co.uk

Trivial benefits set against massive damage to
our entire local community and landscape.

The company behind this ill conceived and unwelcome Energy Park, Exagen, have reached out to the local community to present a development the scale of which is absolutely fixed and not subject to discussion. Regardless of visual impact, habitat loss, food production or public amenity Exagen are determined to deliver a 49.9MW solar farm and maximise investor returns. Unfortunately the local community and wildlife will be the ones left to live with the reality of the changed countryside for a minimum of 40 years.

Exagen have no proven track record. They have not yet built a single solar park and yet they are proposing to destroy our treasured rural landscape. The cumulative impact of the hugely visible and poorly screened Battery storage facility and the proposed Energy Park will completely industrialise and ruin our rural area.

Exagen’s stated opinion on the use of agricultural farmland is that it offers the quickest deployment opportunities for solar farm development but surely when we are taking decisions that will impact our countryside for decades then a thoughtful balanced approach is the minimum standard to apply.

"It's the easiest, quickest and cheapest.”

Exagen's Mark Rowcroft regarding the use of agricultural land for solar

Hasn’t our community taken enough?

Our local area, community and landscape has already given 35 to 40 years of opencast mining, and it has taken many years since to repair the immense damages done. In addition, we host 9 wind turbines in close proximity to the village.

This planned development has absolutely no regard for locals, our environment, our community or our interests. Haven’t we and our beautiful rural surroundings, all had enough of others coming into our community and stripping our land for their own benefits and profiteering?

As we will show you, this proposed project offers zero benefits to our community.

Our land and our wildlife are under threat

It’s clear the loss of Highfield’s agricultural roots and the visual impact on our landscape will be irreversible. But the ripples don’t stop there. The land within the proposed site boundary is actively used by badgers (including setts), hedgehogs, otters, hares, bats, ground nesting birds (on endangered list) and it also provides a resting and feeding ground for migrating geese every year. Exagen’s screening document attempts to minimise the effect that the proposed Energy Park will have on the local wildlife. The document concludes that the impact of acres of solar panels and kilometres of security fencing will be minimal, which is completely untrue. 

What is clear is that Exagen haven’t done anywhere near enough surveys and due diligence to be able to forecast or understand accurately what they would be impacting, let alone compensate for those impacts.

It will completely industrialise our rural area

The proposed sites for both the Energy Park and Battery Park are both on areas of High Landscape Value and Archaeological sites.

All of this has been completely disregarded by Exagen. As we know, the land that surrounds our community performs a vital function as open countryside, used for agriculture, recreation, and conservation and enhancement of the natural environment. This is without doubt under threat.

Detrimental visual impact to such a wide area

The visual impact of such a huge Energy Park would fundamentally change the character of the area. The majority of the site is sloping, which makes it impossible to hide the Energy Park in any shape or form. The site will be visible to surrounding villages, with most of their communities unaware of the plans.

Whilst there will be no footpaths lost the amenity and character of those routes will be transformed for at least 40 years. Currently walkers along those paths enjoy open and expansive views across open agricultural land and over the Derwent Valley or the Tyne Valley. 

Those views will be replaced with views of 2.4m high fencing and the underside of row after row of 3m high solar panels. The paths may still be present but the attractive natural setting around them will be lost for more than a generation and made worse by a constant high pitched whirring noise emitted by the electrical inverter equipment.

Ways you can get involved

Or alternatively, you can lodge your objection by emailing Northumberland Council direct at:
planningcomments@northumberland.gov.uk

Please do make sure you add your full name, postal address and reference number: 23/01717/FUL