To all our supporters, thank you very much and a Happy New Year .

South Tyneside Council  brought a motion to amend the Local Plan which involved allowing commercial and other developments on the South Tyneside Green Belt. However the motion was defeated by Green and Independent Councillors .As a result the Labour Leader advised SAFC to withdraw their current application for a Solar Farm and alter or revise the application to meet the Local Plan criteria which will be difficult to achieve.

The flood on the West Field of the SAFC Academy of Light has attracted protected bird species and reflects the drainage issues affected by Northumbrian Water . In order to reduce sewage emissions at Whitburn and comply with the 2012 European Court Judgement for breaching the UWWTR. ,part of the 'solution'  was to divert water drainage in the Whitburn Moor area.

The recent investigation by OFWAT was comprehensive and their findings and evidence conclusively shows failings of Northumbrian Water  with respect to their duties and obligations under the Water Act and the UWWTR.

OFWAT have dedicated a whole section to the Whitburn / Hendon sewage system.

The area of the proposed Solar Farm has had drainage work completed with respect to Boldon Flats, as part of the Whitburn Spill reduction scheme. This work has obviously not provided the required solution given the recent flooding. The risk would be that, should the Solar farm be approved and  built, this will significantly reduce the options for more effective drainage work to be undertaken on that land. The Solar Farm owners would be unlikely to agree to having parts of the farm dismantled for further drainage work. Concerns raised on the OFWAT notice  suggest that No planning applications should be approved in the South Tyneside area that is serviced by the Whitburn /Hendon sewage system until a  fresh analysis of potential options for reducing both the frequency and volume of spills from the Whitburn-Hendon system has been completed by Northumbrian Water.

We await further applications from SAFC in response while noting that the Labour Government stated that commercial developments should not use the last green belt between two areas which the SAFC application would have done if approved.