The proposed routing

RES plan to direct construction traffic for some of the western section and ALL of the eastern section off the A144 at Top Road and then along Tooks Common Lane and Clarkes Lane to either the track leading to the Ilketshall St Andrew substation or the western access point at the private track by Rookery Farm. 

Top Road is a residential area with forty homes on it. Driveway and garage space is limited so cars and vans are frequently parked on the carriageway.

Tooks Common Lane and Clarkes Lane both have Quiet Lane status where walking, cycling and horse riding are encouraged. For much of their lengths they are barely ten feet wide and have ditches running alongside them. They lack passing places too and the ability to 'pull over' simply doesn't exist for many hundreds of yards. 

The HGV's that will be delivering materials for the construction phase of the development will be 40 feet long (plus) and over eight feet wide. They will be an obvious physical danger to anyone using the Quiet Lanes for the purpose in which they were intended, particularly around the many blind bends in the summer months when the hedgerows are too full of greenery to see over, even from a lorry cab.   

RES are now stating that the construction phase will last just six months. This is half the time they told us to expect at their Public Exhibition in November 2022. As similar developments they have undertaken in other parts of the country have extended beyond eighteen months, we are naturally sceptical of how accurate this guess is.

We are told the site will be accepting deliveries between 0700 and 1900 Monday to Friday, and between 0800 and 1630 on Saturdays.  

At their Information Day on 25th May 2023 RES representatives were inconsistent in their estimations when it came to the number of HGV's that could be delivering along this route every day. Some told residents that they anticipated it would be as few as eight and others said it could be as many as fourteen. 

RES have given no details of an exit route so we are assuming the drivers and their sat-navs will be left to work it out for themselves. We are therefore anticipating fun and games; both on the two ninety degree bends at the northern end of Clarkes Lane before it joins the B1062, and also on Tooks Common Lane and Top Road if they attempt go back the same way they came and encounter similarly sized traffic travelling in the opposite direction. 

Whatever happens residents will become collateral damage during the solar farm's construction phase. The route RES advise their suppliers to take into (and out of) the site will not be compulsory and we anticipate many of the neighbouring roads (e.g. Mill Lane, Becks Green Lane, Ringsfield Road, Banters Lane and Hall Road) also seeing their share of the increased traffic.