Please show us your support to help stop this BESS madness

E mail -  paul.lester@bromsgroveandredditch.gov.uk 

By Letter -  Paul Lester - Planning - Town Hall, Walter Stranz Square, Redditch B98 8AH 

Details of the scheme we want you to object to is : 

Immersa BESS facility in Astwood Lane Feckenham 23/00417/FUL

You can choose what to say and how you wish to object.  Feel free to change our text below.

We suggest you highlight your concerns briefly and in order of importance to you. 

Topics which have been raised so far by the local residents of Feckenham and Astwood Bank include:

•  Fire and Safety Concerns – the plans do not comply with the Recommendations of the Hereford and Worcester Fire Department or the National Fire Chiefs Council. Although fires are not that common, should there be a fire the dangers and risks are considerable. As our local H&W Fire Chief has commented: there is “no definitive or preferred way of putting out a lithium/ion fire. There are in effect two main options; one being let it burn, the other being to use significant amounts of water for a protracted period….”. In the first option, the fire would burn for a week, with toxic fumes in the air for months. The second option would cause the water courses for miles around to be polluted. Alarmingly, Immersa has not provided for any fire hydrants on-site and claims that "their design does not mandate fire service intervention to extinguish any container fire.
  
    
• The noise generated form this site will impact on the local community and this should be avoided at all costs. The main site noise would be generated by the the cooling equipment and inverters used per container. We want to keep our village peaceful and non industrial.

• Loss of Green Belt Land - Harm to amenity & openness from “industrial” BESS development.

• Loss of Agricultural Land - Where will our food come from and what about protecting wildlife habitats in the area ?

• Proximity to Feckenham Primary School – The fire risks and noise issue will be a major problem for the school, its pupils and staff. The long term health and wellbeing of the residents of Feckenham is being ignored and put aside by this application.

• Harm to the Setting of the Historic Village of Feckenham with its Conservation Area.

• The Immersa scheme is one of five known adjacent BESS schemes that could cover up to 200 acres of historic farmland near Feckenham with BESS 40ft metal shipping containers.

• Getting the shipping containers to site due to the number and weight may seriously affect the large number of listed buildings in Feckenham and the surrounding area. .

• This planning application needs to be considered in the context of all the other potential BESS schemes locally.

• BESS technology, which sources energy directly from National Grid, will be storing energy, some of which comes from non-renewable sources such as gas-fired and oil-fired power stations & nuclear energy.  This is simply not green energy and a complete sham.

• BESS Units are only useful for buying in cheap energy and selling it at a higher price so its not green energy production at all. It's just profiteering and is not environmentally friendly

• The Renewable Energy Planning Database shows that National Grid’s stated target of 28 to 35GW of BESS storage for the whole of the UK to achieve 2050 Net-Zero has already been met by BESS facilities already constructed, under construction or with existing planning consent. Thus, no further BESS planning consents are needed.

• The manufacture and transportation of Lithium Ion batteries is not “Green” as most come from the Far East at a carbon cost to the planet.

• Lithium Ion batteries last 5-8 years, and the BESS facility will leave a highly toxic legacy of around 22,000 tons of waste batteries for this application alone. Immersa does not give a credible account of how this will be managed or disposed of going forward.

• 40 years of use as a BESS facility will harm the land; who will pay for its restoration, and will it then become a brownfield site and be replaced with housing ?

We want you to use the basic letter / e mail text below, modify it and then send it by letter or e mail to Paul Lester.  

Time is of the essence here, so lets get working on it now.

And please tell your neighbours too, so they can object - Send them to the website and lets get objecting.

Dear Mr. Lester,

I am writing to you about the Immersa BESS facility in Astwood Lane Feckenham 23/00417/FUL

I am deeply concerned that this application should be rejected and will not serve the residents of Feckenham and Astwood Bank well for the following reasons: ( or whatever you want to write )

Please add in your own text or choose from our bullet points above.........

Yours sincerely,

Your Name

Your Address

Your Phone number

Your e mail address

Don't delay - What you do now could shape what we have for the next 40 years in the village.

Thank you for objecting......