Save Ash Level

17/12/2025

CPRE Kent is working to enhance, promote and protect Kent's countryside. Love Kent's beautiful rural areas? Find out more and get involved.

28/11/2025

Joint statement from Sir Roger Gale and Cllr Daniel Friend:

We strongly welcome Dover District Council’s decision last night to refuse the Little South Solar Farm application.

This was a significant and well-considered outcome. The committee listened carefully to residents, heritage experts, environmental groups and local councillors. The evidence was clear: the proposal would have caused unacceptable and irreversible harm to the Ash Levels, the setting of Richborough Roman Fort, our wildlife habitats and a historic landscape that has shaped East Kent for centuries.

Renewable energy is essential, but it must be delivered in the right places, and never at the expense of the very environment we are trying to protect. This was the wrong scheme in the wrong location, and the decision sets an important precedent for how sensitive landscapes across East Kent should be safeguarded.

We also hope the strength of local feeling demonstrated throughout this process will be recognised by the Planning Inspectorate as it considers National Grid’s far larger and more intrusive proposals for a converter station on the Minster Marshes. These marshes, together with the heritage of Richborough Fort and the surrounding nature reserves, deserve robust protection from unnecessary and unjustified development.

Last night’s decision confirms that East Kent will not accept schemes that damage our landscape, our heritage or our biodiversity under the banner of progress. We are grateful to all residents, campaigners and experts who made their voices heard, and we will continue to stand with the community to protect the places that matter.

26/11/2025

We can only hope for the same outcome.
They didn’t even have a Scheduled Monument and the gateway to Roman Britain in full eye-line and just 160 metres away!!

Harm to grade II heritage buildings on the 22 agricultural fields on the site and turning the farmland to an industrial landscape were among the reasons cited for the rejection.

Cornwall Council voted against the Speedwell Solar Farm development at Gwinear, near Hayle.

26/11/2025

The solar farm would cover an area the size of around 128 football pitches

24/11/2025

So many amazing innovations like this worldwide. In Germany they are placing solar in between rails!
Will even considering replacing farmland be a decision in the near future?

In Sweden, the future of rail travel is beginning to shine — quite literally — from above. Several train networks have begun outfitting their carriages with rooftop solar panels, turning each journey into a moving solar farm. These panels stretch across the length of the train, soaking up daylight as the cars glide through forests, fields, and cities. But the power isn’t just used onboard — it’s fed directly into stations and support systems along the route.

Each train becomes a traveling generator. While passengers move from one stop to another, the sunlight they pass under is captured and rerouted to light platforms, power escalators, or even support ticket kiosks miles ahead. The system is synced so that the surplus energy harvested between stations can be returned to the grid or directed toward low-traffic rural stops that often struggle with energy access.

What’s remarkable is the blend of elegance and efficiency. The panels are ultra-thin, vibration-resistant, and designed to endure snow, sleet, and Sweden’s long winters. During summer months, a single train can generate enough electricity during the day to sustain several smaller stations through the night.

There’s no fanfare — just sleek carriages reflecting the sky and quietly doing more than move people. By letting railways generate their own momentum and support the infrastructure around them, Sweden is proving that transportation can go beyond movement — it can give back.

23/11/2025

We all complain about it well how about fight for it ✊
​After 4 years of battling, the fate of Ash Level could be decided in just 20 minutes.
We cannot let them rubber-stamp an industrial scheme on our ancient land without a fight.

​THIS THURSDAY, 27th NOV
📍Where: Council Offices, White Cliffs Business Park, Whitfield
⏰ When: Gather at 5:15pm (Hearing starts 6pm)
​
Your physical presence makes the difference. Show the Councillors that destroying our ecology, wildlife, farmland and heritage is unacceptable.

23/11/2025

Surely they won't put these on ancient farmland just metres from a Grade 1 Listed Monument and English Heritage Site - Richborough Roman Fort, the gateway to Roman Britain. Surely they won't pile drive these metres down into the buried first Roman Road in Britain - Watling Street? Surely they won't completely alter the landscape looked out across by Emperor Claudius in AD43?

Incredibly, Dover District Council has recommended the industrial solar scheme - the size of 128 football pitches - be approved!

Richborough Roman Fort is a Scheduled Monument - one of the highest heritage designations - and should require the strongest level of protection in planning law.

Get WildLocks of Sandwich CyclesAsh Village community siteSandwich Town KentCanterbury Residents GroupJuliet's Farm Shop and cafe Ash Parish Council Stop The Destruction Of Kent Deal NoticeboardAsh Village Sandwich Lakes Ash Kent

21/11/2025

Please share

21/11/2025

Ash Level today before sea of solar

21/11/2025

How worrying is this!!

Norwegian state-owned utility Statkraft AS reported a net loss of NOK 714 million (USD 70.8m/EUR 61.2m) in the third quarter of 2025, compared with a NOK 225 million loss a year earlier, as lower prices in northern Norway, negative hedging effects and weaker market activity weighed on results.

21/11/2025

ALERT : Planning Committee hearing - Thursday 27th November at 7pm
Save Ash Level, come along to show your objection

A plan for a huge solar farm development just 160 metres from a site described as the birthplace of Roman Britain is set to be decided next week.