Community urged to join national day of action for nature, parks and green spaces at Northamptonshire airfield
Members of the community are being urged to join a national day of action for nature, parks and green spaces by joining in a walk at Desborough Airfield.
Friends of the Airfield and the Valley (FAV) group will lead the ‘non-partisan’ ramble to highlight the loss of wildlife and biodiversity as well as threats to parks, rivers, woodlands and green spaces.
FAV, a cross-community group established under the auspices of Wilbarston Parish Council, has been monitoring a proposal by Innova to develop a solar farm and a battery energy storage system at the site.
Innova Renewables is preparing a planning application for the site and is currently preparing details that will form part of a public consultation, that will take place prior to submission of the full planning application.
Ann Dowling from FAV said: “This is a wonderful opportunity to show politicians of every variety that people do care about their environment and just how important it is to them.”
People wanting to join in the walk have been asked to meet at the junction of Rushton Road and Springfield Road in Wilbarston by 2pm on Saturday, April 18.
The group will then walk and gather on the airfield at 2.30pm at the hanger nearest to the Rushton Road entrance for a guided walk with an airfield historian and a naturalist.
A spokesman for Innova said: “The proposed development would support the UK’s transition to Net Zero and increase the use of renewable energy by supporting the supply of energy to the National Grid.
“The site has been carefully selected and designed through a detailed assessment process. This initially considered grid availability, land availability, environmental designations, planning policy, access, and impacts on landscape, heritage, agricultural land quality, and ecological matters.
“A team of expert consultants has been appointed to undertake site-specific assessments, which are currently ongoing. Following the results of these surveys, consultation with the council, and a public consultation, iterative design work will be undertaken prior to submission of the full planning application.”
The day of action calls for ‘attention to loss of wildlife and biodiversity, threats to parks, rivers, woodlands and green spaces, the importance of nature for health and well-being, and the need for political leadership to protect the natural environment’.
Innova says that Desborough Airfield Solar Site’s landscaping planning, seeding and habitat creation plans will ‘focus on native species’ that will ‘contribute to securing long term biodiversity net gain across the site’.
The solar farm has been designed to leave green spaces around the site boundaries and between the rows of panels to ‘avoid shading and maximise electricity generation’, leaving the majority of the solar array as ‘uncovered grassland’.