Lincolnshire solar farms plans should be rejected - councillors

Plans for two Lincolnshire solar farms should be rejected by the government due to their likely impact on farmland, traffic concerns and lack of supporting infrastructure, councillors have said.

The Planning Inspectorate is to decide whether the Cottam Farm and Heckington Fen Solar Park sites should go ahead.

But giving feedback to the government, councillors criticised the proposals.

Councillor Tom Smith said the Cottam Farm plan was "one of the sacrificial lambs on the altar of net zero".

The authority's Planning and Regulation Committee met on Monday to examine plans for the 600MW Cottam Farm site and the 400MW Heckington Fen Solar Park.

Due to their size and predicted generating capacity, the proposed farms are classified as Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs).

NSIPs - usually assigned to large scale projects such as airports and major roads - bypass normal local planning requirements.

Responding to the Cottam Farm plans, Mr Smith said it was the first application he had seen which included objections on agricultural grounds.

"Additionally, it has not seen any energy-related benefits locally from the scheme because, quite simply, there aren't any for the local area," he said.

"This has been used as one of the sacrificial lambs on the altar of net zero, and the economic and social harm this and other NSIPs will do locally cannot be understated."

Another councillor, Marianne Overton, expressed concern about the impact on agricultural land and emphasised the importance of growing food.

"It seems the world's gone mad. We do want renewable energy, but we've still got huge swathes of industrial buildings with no solar panels on the roof.

"Then we go and cover our agricultural fields which are still in use growing food. It just seems bizarre."

Other issues were highlighted, including the extra traffic created and a lack of supporting infrastructure, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Addressing concerns regarding the Cottam Farm project, Eve Browning, project development manager for Green Power, acknowledged the potential impact on agricultural land and public rights of way.

Ms Browning, who assured the council of thorough soil assessments and land ownership security, said there was "a clear need for renewable, affordable, and reliable energy".

Meanwhile, commenting on the Heckington Fen Solar Park plan, Laura White, project manager at Ecotricity, pointed to the benefits of the renewable energy project.

She said: "There is no silver bullet when it comes to renewable energy, but we need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, and we need to do more to fix the climate crisis."

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