I have always loved the countryside of East Suffolk and it has been an inspiration to me and many others. During the Covid lockdown, an application was made to build three very large electricity substations, together with cables through to off-shore windfarms, on a site next to a small village which I know very well – Friston. The application was approved by the Government authorities, without taking into account other developments planned for the area, and now, five years on, the fields just a short walk from the village are being dug up by an abundance of mechanical diggers, roads are closed and footpaths diverted, and local residents are depressed and despondent.
Since the time the application was approved, the building of Sizewell C nuclear power station, five miles down the road, has been approved, and already the countryside is being ripped up for miles around to accommodate the large amount of infrastructure it will need. Simultaneously, other electricity companies are now putting in applications for converter stations sited along a belt of farmland between Friston and Saxmundham, making an industrial complex around three miles long by half a mile wide. Again, the planning system does not take into account projects in the pipeline when new projects are considered. It is so sad that this unplanned free-for-all allows competing profit-making companies to go their own way without any kind of integration or planning lead from central government, especially when under-sea cables offer a far less disruptive alternative. I had hoped for better from this government.
So, for those of us in this part of the world, on the coast from Aldeburgh to Walberswick and inland from Snape to Saxmundham and beyond, these concrete-laden projects do not come across as ‘green’. Of course, once it’s done, nature will have some chance to recover, and we will know where to avoid – but some of these projects will take ten to twenty years to complete and so our children and grandchildren will be the judges. If you’d like to know more about what is going on, and make your views known, this website will help.
I have written many pieces inspired by the East Suffolk landscape, though I must admit, as I walk along my local footpaths, I find it difficult at the moment. But, five years ago, the prospect of what is now happening inspired me to write an orchestral piece, ‘Friston Moor’ painting a musical picture of an area which is already changing – paths closed, farmland dug up – but ultimately ending in hope, as nature, and greening, will always triumph over concrete and cables.
Here’s the link to ‘Friston Moor’ – the music and the images are unchanged from five years ago. And the image at the top of this post is the same landscape this week.
I also wrote a piece, with film, picturing what will become the cable route from the coast to Friston. This is a more tuneful piece, celebrating the beautiful countryside, and I’ll post this another week.