Government windfarm plan is 'attack on countryside'

Government plans to end an effective ban on onshore wind turbines have been described as an "attack on the countryside" by a senior Lincolnshire county councillor.

In a speech on Monday, Labour's new chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said the government would end what she called an "absurd ban" on new onshore wind turbines.

However, Lincolnshire County Council's executive member for economy, environment and strategic planning Colin Davie said he was concerned about the potential impact on the county's agricultural industry.

In 2021, the county council passed a motion saying it would "object to all" wind turbines except those on a small scale.

The topic of wind farms has been a controversial one in Lincolnshire, with the county boasting huge, flat expanses of agricultural land.

In Ms Reeves' first speech as chancellor, she said the new government would be taking "tough" and "hard choices" to grow the economy.

In 2015, the Conservative goverment changed planning rules, which gave local people more say on large projects like windfarms.

On Monday, the chancellor said: "Any development may have environmental consequences, place pressure on services and rouse voices of local opposition, but we will not succumb to a status quo which responds to the existence of trade-offs by always saying no."

Mr Davie said: "This is an attack on the countryside.

"There is no indication that they actually understand what their announcements would mean for farmland and food security.

"That is actually a priority equal to anything else in my view and there’s been no attempt to address any of that."

The government said it is committed to a "clean power mission" which it claimed would "save people money on energy bills, support high-skilled jobs and tackle the climate crisis".

It has scrapped a rule which it said meant "any opposition" to a proposal "cannot be considered acceptable".

Ms Reeves said it should lead to hundreds of turbines being built, but admitted there would be opposition to the plans.

"I'm not naive to that, and we must acknowledge that trade-offs always exist," she said.

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