A leading district councillor says there’s ‘little hope’ of stopping solar farms following a successful appeal.
Green Energy International has been allowed to build the solar farm across 114 hectares at Cauldwell Farm in Holbeach St Matthew.
That’s after South Holland District Council refused the application last year, arguing it would be a loss of agricultural land.
However, ruling in the appellant’s favour on behalf of the Secretary of State, Inspector Philip Major said it would be ‘relatively insignificant in the local, regional and national spatial context’.
Responding to a question from Coun Laura Eldridge at last week’s meeting of South Holland District Council, Coun Henry Bingham, the authority’s portfolio holder for strategic planning, said: “It’s appalling going against what the officers decided.
“To give no weight to this part of Lincolnshire and its character shows the government’s single minded approach to these decisions.
“There seems little hope that there will be a stop to these.
“They mention the fact it’s a minute amount, and they do have a point with this application as it is minute, but the problem is it’s not one application, we’ve numerous.
“There’s going to be more and more coming through and there’s a mad push for it.
“There’s going to be vast swathes of Lincolnshire and South Holland being covered up by solar panels is this the way we’re going to go .
“At what point do they say this is enough?”
“It is while town and city politicians making decision on the countryside we’re always going to be a target.
“They don’t understand it so they don’t particularly care about it.
“We can put our opinions forward and do our best for the area.
“I’ve seen some negative posts about renewables.
“We’re not anti-renewables and have supported such projects. It’s about putting things in the right place and there is lower grade land in Lincolnshire they should be looking at instead.
“They shouldn’t be looking at the cheapest, flattest land in
“I can see Lincolnshire being a different place in the next 10 years.
“It’s definitely not going to be open skies and flat fields.”
