Hastings Borough councillors should be ashamed of their plan to disfigure the Country Park

Have Hastings Borough councillors completely lost their sense of responsibility for what is one of the primary assets of Hastings – Hastings Country Park? Do they really care so little about this unique and precious place that they propose to commit this act of vandalism against it by disfiguring it with vast arrays of solar panels? It is beyond belief that such a proposal could even enter the mind of anyone at Hastings Borough Council. 
It is a scheme which would so patently degrade the environment of the Country Park that the “thinking” behind this proposal is impossible to comprehend.

What an indifferent and deplorable attitude seems to exist in the minds of the councillors towards a treasured area of Hastings which it is their duty to protect and nurture.

During Monday’s meeting, council leader Peter Chowney said the council had a responsibility to look at green energy projects. No-one would argue against that. But the council has an over-riding responsibility to preserve the natural environment of the Country Park.

Hastings Country Park is described in the opening words of the Council’s Development Management plan, adopted in 2015, as being “Hastings’ area of true countryside – and it is a very special area of countryside. This is an area where the natural environment is of paramount importance”.

The council’s proposals would violate this principle. What hypocrisy, therefore, on their part to be contemplating this degradation of that environment and this appalling blot on the landscape. Such spoliation and for such base materialistic motives. Hastings Borough councillors should be ashamed.

They are morally bound to honour their stated belief in the paramount importance of the natural environment of the Country Park and drop this scheme.