Object

Representation ID: 92321

Received: 12/08/2018

Respondent: Mr David Bignell

The proposed plan and siting if SIL-02 with the intent to replace 390 Hectares of high yielding agricultural farm land with a Silica mine is effectively devaluing the natural and economic contribution this land makes to the local and UK population on a number of specific points:

1. It is recognised by the UK Government that Food production is the single most important commodity and by far the most important business in the world. Everything else is a luxury. The ability of the UK to feed its own population is paramount and has no higher precedent.

Uk.GOV: "Britain needs to ensure a sustainable supply of food for the UK market and export. Supporting and developing British farming, and encouraging sustainable food production (including fisheries) will ensure a secure, environmentally sustainable and healthy supply of food with improved standards of animal welfare."

The NFU state: "Failing in this objective will leave the country exposed to the volatility of global markets and increases the risks of having to import food produced to lower standards than those required of domestic producers."
Effectively this plan would see a precious and ethically high value commodity (food production) replaced with an ethically much lower value mineral mine. This is in reality an immoral devaluation of the site to suit a short term unsustainable business based on nothing but realising exploitation of a natural occurring mineral for short term profit, that adds no benefit to the local population. The proposal is an absolute contradiction to the government and NFU principles to support agricultural development.

2. The UK is the fourth largest and lowest-cost producer of sugar beet in the EU. Over 4,000 growers grow approximately 7.5 million tonnes of sugar beet each year on just over 100,000 hectares of land, producing half the sugar consumed in the UK. Approximately 75% of this sugar is sold directly to industrial users such as manufacturers of food, soft drinks and confectionery

This fact puts into context the contribution the proposed SIL-02 site makes to the agricultural industry and local economy as a significant producer of Sugar Beet. Once produced the Beet is processed at a nearby plant at Wissington, A local sustainable industry reliant on locally produced beet. It is a significant and sustainable employer and contributor to an important UK based industry.
British Sugar "We are strong supporters of sustainable agriculture and helping farmers continuously improve their sugar beet yields"

The intent to change the significant role the land plays in the local infrastructure devalues the land as a sustainable employer for the local population where rural employment is already constrained. The plan to extract Silica is based on nothing but realising short term exploitation of a natural occurring mineral at the expense of the local people, their sustainable local industry and the significant contribution that industry delivers to the wider economy.

3. The Silica extraction is a very short term unsustainable 20 year mining exercise that will negatively and permanently transform land use. If the decision is made to proceed then that same decision will end farming of that land forever as it will not be left fit for agriculture. This is just short term profiteering that will absolutely end a long term sustainable industry.