Member

We all know that, usually, the developers will get their way, but it is better to be informed. With water levels, for example, energy companies did not have a clue that, in one of the most water-deprived parts of the country, farmers decades ago enhanced their water processes by going underground and having a very sophisticated irrigation network. The energy companies’ plan would have absolutely ripped through all that and destroyed farming in that part of that county for ever. They did not have a clue because they did not properly do the work in the pre-application consultation—they did not even get ready for it. I recognise that all that can be sorted out in the planning application process, but by then the local community has lost faith and trust. The community then assumes that it is just a done deal, and asks, “What on earth is going on?”—and then the JRs start.