The Aldeburgh Society is proud to announce the launch of its Town Improvement Grant (TIG) scheme, a new initiative designed to enhance the visual appeal and overall vitality of the town. Grants of up to £500 are available for eligible projects that demonstrably improve the town’s appearance. Applicants must reside within Aldeburgh or operate a business located within the town & its boundaries. For more info click HERE Carnival Call Out!
As you can see, we had a fantastic time at the carnival last year. If you'd like to get involved in the Aldeburgh Carnival on 19th August, or contribute your artistic skills to our Aldeburgh Society float, please get in touch with Katherine Mackie [email protected]. Send us your ideas for an 80s theme. Maybe something you know happened in Aldeburgh in the 80s? Following a very successful talk to the Aldeburgh Society by Jenny Cousins the Director of the Food Museum in Stowmarket, a visit has been arranged for 30th August 2024 for members of the Aldeburgh Society and the Aldeburgh and District Local History Society. The museum was known as the Museum of East Anglian Life from 1967 until it became the Food Museum in 2022. The Museum is set across 84 acres of glorious Suffolk countryside. It has 17 fascinating buildings to explore and close to 40,000 objects in its collection – from wartime ration recipes to a full size steam-powered mill engine. On the day of this visit the Watermill which was restored in 2022 should be running. For more information and to book click HERE
It is time for our popular Summer Party again. Come and join us at Aldeburgh Library for wine, soft drinks and canapés on 19th July 6-8pm.
Book your tickets HERE Guests are welcome, particularly prospective members! Our Annual General Meeting will be held on June 24th at 6pm in the Church Hall. Do come along and join us. A glass of wine (and soft drinks) will be provided. Read more HERE
Thank you to Catherine Palmer who delivered an informative report about the society and its work at Aldeburgh's Annual Town Meeting on 25th April at the Old Generator Station. From the society's work around energy projects, planning and conservation to our events and lecture programme, read the full speech by clicking on the link below
COUNTY COUNCIL EXPRESSES CONCERN
Energy developers who are bringing forward large-scale energy projects without speaking to councils or communities, were criticised heavily today by Councillor Richard Rout, Deputy Leader of Suffolk County Council and Cabinet member for Finance and the Environment, following the latest publication of National Grid's Transmission Entry Capacity (TEC) Register. Read the County Council's concerns on the link below. However it's not just Solar Farms and the like. We are concerned about the infrastructure needed for the connection of windfarms and links to continental Europe, https://www.suffolk.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/council-news/developers-risk-treating-suffolk-communities-with-contempt The Aldeburgh Society is very pleased that East Suffolk Council has decided to extend the areas of the Town designated as Conservation Areas. This we believe will help preserve the town's unique character and heritage for future generations. Conservation Areas exist to manage and protect the special architectural and historic interest of a place - in other words, the features that make it unique. Every local authority in England has at least one Conservation Area and there are around 10,000 in England. In Conservation Areas there are some extra planning controls and considerations in place to protect the historic and architectural elements which make the place special. Conservation Areas aren’t just about restriction. They ensure that the best of our heritage is kept for future generations and help ensure that every place retains as much as possible of its own unique identity. What’s more, the fact that Conservation Areas enjoy protection from poor-quality development means that they’ve become more desirable as places to live, which in turn is often reflected in higher property prices. Aldeburgh's conservation area was first designated in 1968, recognizing the town's architectural and historic significance and encompassed the town centre. The Society and Town Council realised some ten years ago that it would be sensible to review its scope, particularly in view of the risk that the area now designated as Aldeburgh Park might lose its limited protection as a special area. Suffolk Coastal District Council (now East Suffolk) agreed and employed consultants to look at options. In addition, representatives of the Society and Town Council walked around key parts of the Town over a period of several months to assess the possibilities. Eventually all was agreed, and East Suffolk Council conducted a consultation which determined most of the Town were very much in favour. There are three extensions to the existing conservation area as follows:
A new Conservation Area named ‘Aldeburgh Park’ has also been also created. This is essentially the area previously designated as the “Garrett Era Area” which was first developed by Newson Garrett and his family and comprises significant Victorian and Edwardian villas as well as later developments. You can see the new area in the map below. More details of this area and the extensions can be found on the East Suffolk website.
The National Grid LionLink Consultation took place on Friday 6th October at the Leiston Community Centre,Sizewell Rd., Leiston IP16 4JU.
The Aldeburgh Society worked with the Golf Club and other Aldeburgh groups and the campaign organisation SEAS to man a stand at the centre and provide materials. The turnout was very high- over 550 people attended. Thank you to all who attended. Here is what we circulated and which will help in responding to the consultation. Background Briefing for the National Grid LionLink Consultation Leiston, Friday 6 October 2023 The Story So Far The Suffolk Coast is threatened by a series of major energy project proposals. Some have already been granted development consent, others are still at the drafting stage. In brief these are: - Sizewell C nuclear power station – Sizewell has been a nuclear site since the 1960s. EDF (a French state-owned company which operates Sizewell B) has consent to build a twin reactor station over the next ten years, subject to obtaining some formal consents and sufficient funding from government and commercial sources. Legal proceedings challenging these plans are ongoing. East Anglia One North and East Anglia Two offshore windfarms (EA1N/EA2)– Scottish Power Renewables (a Spanish-owned company) has consent to build these two windfarms, including a landfall at Thorpeness cliffs, a large National Grid substation near Friston, and a wide cable corridor between the two. Legal proceedings challenging these plans are ongoing. Friston substation – National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) has consent via EA1N/EA2 above. This is the lynch pin of all the wind energy projects coming into Suffolk Coastal. Should the legal challenges mentioned above succeed, then none of the other projects have a grid connection in this coastal area and the offshore grid would be the obvious solution. SeaLink – National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) is proposing to construct an undersea transmission cable between Suffolk and Kent to boost the supply network in London and the South-East. Two potential landfall points have been identified - Sizewell and the beach road between Aldeburgh and Thorpeness, with cabling through North Warren on to a large converter station at either Blackheath or Knodishall, with a final network connection to NG’s proposed Friston substation. The Statutory Consultation will take place at the end of this October/beginning of November before they apply for a Development Consent Order (DCO) in 2024. LionLink (formerly known as Eurolink) interconnector – National Grid Ventures (a non-regulated for-profit company) is proposing to construct a subsea interconnector between the Netherlands and Suffolk to enable bulk power to be transferred either way to meet peaks and troughs. Unfortunately, the power from Holland is not green, but from fossil fuels. Potential landfall points have been identified at Reydon, Southwold, Walberswick, Dunwich and Aldeburgh, with cable trenching to a 26m high / 5-hectare Convertor Station - two massive halls which once operable are locked for 25 years with just a few key holders’ access – in other words no jobs. The convertor station then converts DC to AC on to the National Grid Friston Substation. Statutory consultation will take place in 2024 with a DCO in 2025. Nautilus interconnector – National Grid Ventures initially envisaged similar arrangements in Suffolk for this interconnector between the UK and Belgium, but has subsequently opted to make landfall in West Grain, Kent and has been investigating pooling the power from Five Estuaries and North Falls windfarms to a Nautilus offshore platform for it to be transported by one set of cables to West Grain. A decision on this was meant to be announced at the end of August, but has been delayed for some reason unknown to the public. It must be emphasised that Sizewell C and the windfarms and the interconnectors are entirely separate projects put forward by separate developers and running to different timescales. They do however all target connection with the twin gridlines stretching south-west from Sizewell. Recognise also that National Grid is a British/North American commercial public company, not a nationalised utility. This LionLink Consultation The Friday 6 October LionLink Consultation is one of three presentations by National Grid officials, following up some previous presentations (including one at the Old Generator Station in Aldeburgh on provisional plans in late 2022) and preparing the way for the formal statutory consultations to be launched in 2025. It will predominantly be staffed by young engineers, planners and PR people. The best people to speak to are the two Senior members of the team, the engineers and the ecologist. The main argument being put forward by SEAS (Suffolk Energy Action Solutions) and associated groups is that we are in favour of offshore wind energy but that cheaper, better and less environmentally harmful ways are available for managing their output. National Grid are under an obligation to explore offshore solutions and compare the adverse impacts along with cost-saving benefits. We believe the offshore circuits/ grids are now an imperative for Britain and we welcome the proposal for Nautilus to be linked to the Five Estuaries and North Falls windfarms through an offshore platform The following questions were asked of the project promoters: - 1.Why are you proposing damaging landfall structures, a wide cable corridor and a large converter station in a nationally designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty? Is a brownfield or pre-industrialised site not better? 2. What will become of your plans if the legal challenge to the Friston substation plan is successful? 3. Why is the cable corridor so wide? How will you protect rare flora and fauna on the route? 4. Are you sufficiently aware of the crumbling cliffs and the coralline crag in this area of coastline? 5. Have you considered the inadequacy of our rural road network for handling large volumes of construction traffic? 6. We understand that five of the proposed energy projects are within a five square mile area and are to be operable by 2030 - Friston Substation, EA1N & EA2, LionLink and Sealink - plus there will be the ongoing construction of Sizewell C. Can you supply a detailed schedule and timeline on how the construction phases of all these energy projects will interact with each other without bringing the traffic in the area to a standstill? 7. What policies do you have for minimising noise and air pollution and protecting dark skies during the construction process? 8. How long do you envisage the onshore works taking? 9. Do you have any concern for the future wellbeing of Aldeburgh which depends a great deal upon its year-round visitor economy? 10. Why are you not proposing a joint project with Sealink to minimise disruption and costs? 11. Are you considering the alternative option of pooling energy at an offshore platform with the SPR windfarms and taking the power in a single subsea cable to a landing point closer to where it is needed? 12. Can you now see that offshore grid platforms, such as is being constructed on the other side of the North Sea, would be more economic, faster to build, and more efficient, than a plethora of separate cables and onshore structures? 13. Do you support the concept of Holistic Network Design now being proposed by National Grid for the other regions of Great Britain? Then why not include East Anglia? 14. Can you see that the damage you are proposing to inflict on Suffolk is akin to the pollution of waterways by sewage, for which large penalties are being imposed on the water companies? 15. Are you aware that we are prepared to fight these damaging proposals through the Courts if necessary? Consultation Responses Please respond from home via email or letter. SEAS has provided guidance on the questions. Email: [email protected] SEAS website: https://www.suffolkenergyactionsolutions.co.uk/ Thank you. |
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