A second visit by Darlington borough councils deputy chair has been completed today. Councillor Chris Mc Ewan and the council as a whole are now very aware of the sheer scale and potential risks of this huge power station development on our doorsteps. In conjunction with the numerous other developments within very close proximity.

Completed a walkround of Bishopton sites with Chris McEwan.Darlington Borough Council Deputy Leader. A follow up visit was also agreed to review the other sites at Great Stainton, Little Stainton & Brafferton.

The next action group public meeting will take place in Bishopton Village hall on Wednesday 10th May 2023 at 19:00.

Thanks to everyone in the village who attended the public meeting on Monday 24th April hosted by Darlington Council Cabinet members. An amazing turnout we estimate over 100 people attended. This clearly demonstrates the feeling of the vast majority of residents in the village.

Our next Action group meeting is currently scheduled for the 10th of May 2023. Final confirmation nearer the time, we are hoping for another influential guest at the meeting. This meeting will provide an update on the progress of the action groups objection, further publicity actions and our proposals for how we manage the JBM public consultation scheduled to begin on 24th May 2023.

There will be a meeting in Bishopton Village Hall as detailed above on Monday 24th April at 6:30pm attended by members of Darlington Borough Council’s cabinet allow residents to voice their concerns. We would encourage anyone who is able to attend to please turn up and make your feelings known.

A quick update to thank everyone who attended the meeting on Wednesday.

Some excellent suggestions were proposed at the meeting and we will follow up on these as soon as possible.

Please continue to spread the word on what is happening. The ribbons on the trees certainly seems to have attracted a lot of attention, these are temporary and will be removed after a few weeks.

We would like to re iterate that these are not trees which will be removed as a result of the proposed cable routing, they are trees which would probably be affected by the proposed cable routing as advised by professional tree specialists not connected to JBM.

Everyone will by now have noticed the red ribbons around many of the trees throughout the village.

The reason for this is to highlight awareness of the likely tree loss which will occur when the cables are trenched through the middle of the village. This is not our opinion this is the opinion of the tree specialists.

This is not all of the trees. We did not have enough ribbon so will continue when more arrives, hoping to highlight this significant change to the appeal and desirability of our village.

There will be another community meeting of the Bishopton Villages action group in Bishopton Village hall on Wednesday 22nd February at 7:30 pm. This will be to pass on updates on what has been happening, but more specifically to hear any suggestions and feedback from the community about ideas on how to proceed with the objection campaign. A flyer should be arriving through your door very soon. A copy of this is shown below.

Bishopton Villages Action Group-Flyer2

The Longpasture Solar Farm application is now live on the DBC planning website. Planning Reference 22/01329/FUL.

Interestingly the cumulative assessment of the solar farm makes no mention whatsoever of the Byers Gill development and only mentions briefly the Hauxley Farm site at Great Stainton. ( It should be noted that this is actually part of the Byers Gill development). The cumulative assessment seems to be somewhat selective.

Thanks to everyone who attended the action group meeting last night. On one of the coldest nights of the year.

The presentation used at the meeting is available under the resources heading on the website.

For reference the email address for our current local MP Mr Paul Howell is as follows:

paul.howell.mp@parliament.uk

There will shortly be a “Help us form”  on the website for anyone who can provide assistance of any kind to the action group. Along with this will be detailed advice on how to provide donations.