District council reacts to approval of UK's biggest solar farm to be sited in Lincolnshire
North Kesteven District Council is looking to negotiate community benefits with the companies behind a new mega solar farm after it was approved by the Government to be sited in Lincolnshire.
With a Secretary of State decision now in place granting development consent to the Springwell Solar Farm to be sited on land between Metheringham and Ashby de la Launde, North Kesteven District Council says it is keen to further explore with future operators EDF how a commitment to provide community benefits of £400 per megawatt of capacity will be spent on local projects.
The authority also wishes to see the major development align with the council’s own adopted Large Scale Solar Energy Community Benefit Policy.
The proposal to install a solar farm with 800MW of generating capacity close to the A15 between Lincoln and Sleaford was considered to be a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) which meant it needed to be determined by the Secretary of State, Ed Milliband, who has now published his decision.
North Kesteven District Council’s position was to comment on the scheme and its local impact and to raise objections on a number of grounds. It highlighted the need to consider the impacts on the community and landscape and visual amenity, grid connection arrangements, cultural heritage and archaeology, ecology and biodiversity net gain, battery storage and associated operational safety and ongoing agricultural use.
These concerns were framed within an overall policy of support, based on the area’s Central Lincolnshire Local Plan and its commitment to supporting a transition to a net-zero carbon future through appropriately-located renewable energy generation.
Council Leader Coun Richard Wright said that this scheme seeks to provide renewable energy to power 180,000 homes over an intended lifespan of 40 years. Whilst the council has clear ambitions and actions with regards to the changing climate and clean energy provision, he said its position has always been one of seeing the right schemes in the right place and the right size. In this case, this led to objections being raised.
He said: “Those objections we did raise were mainly in respect of how the scheme impacted on best and most versatile agricultural land, with very nearly half of it taking up land of this classification.
“We would still ask that through careful location of the panels and onsite infrastructure this is kept to a minimum and also to consider battery technologies that have lowest environmental impact and are demonstrably the safest.
“We are also pleased that the Secretary of State has listened and responded to our concerns regarding the timings of works in relation to the proposed new substation at Navenby, and that we have secured significant financial contributions of over £2m towards delivering a skills and education package and biodiversity gains over the 40-year lifetime of development.
“We welcome this final decision on what has already been a long-running project and will now look forward to EDF fulfilling their commitment in relation to community benefits in line with our adopted policy.”
However, not everyone is happy about the project with local campaigners furious about decision which they feel will industrialize the landscape and take land out of food production.
Sleaford and North Hykeham MP Caroline Johnson (Conservative) said the government’s decision showed “utter contempt for our local communities, our local landscape and Lincolnshire’s national role in food production”.
Marc Williams, from the Springwell Solar Action Group, said: “The decision taken by the Secretary of State (Ed) Miliband and the Labour government is an absolute disgrace.
"This will result in the destruction of over 4,000 acres of prime farmland. The people behind this project are simply sucking in subsidies. For approximately five months of the year this scheme will produce so little energy but will have ruined the countryside.
"The developers have provided zero guarantees against potential harms and our community have been ignored. I ask that everyone in the UK uses the local elections to show Labour that they are destroying our country.”
Developers EDF Renewables UK and Luminous Energy say it will speed up the move away from fossil fuels, and prevent the release of thousands of tonnes of carbon.