Lower Penn residents united at public meeting in objections to planned electrical storage systems

More than 100 residents, business and landowners came to Victory Hall in Lower Penn, near Wolverhampton, on Friday evening to discuss the proposals and develop an understanding of what the planned developments meant to them.

The meeting was organised after two BESS applications were made to South Staffordshire Council to develop on land at The Roughs in Dimmingsdale and on Market Lane.

Companies Elgin Energy Limited and Renewable Power Capital say the systems would complement the existing national grid facility in the parish.

South Staffordshire Council is due to consider the applications, and has a consultation exercise planned for February 15.

Friday's public meeting (January 31) was designed to allow those in attendance to ask questions to local representatives, as well as hear from Kingswinford and South Staffordshire MP Mike Wood and Staffordshire County Council cabinet Member for Communities and Culture Victoria Wilson.

Lower Penn Parish Council Councillor Steve McEwen laid down the aims of the meeting, namely to develop a response to the planning applications, as well as bring more attention from higher levels of government to the plight of the community.

With a request from Councillor McEwen to keep the emotions to a minimum, the floor was opened up to questions from those present in what was timed to be an hour-and-a-half long meeting.

Questions covered topics from how light pollution from a BESS might be destructive to the local bat population to environmental concerns about the Roughs, with a fears raised that if a fire broke out at the BESS, the toxic chemicals would run down into the nearby Poolhall fishery and the canal.