Lincolnshire Against Needless Destruction (LAND) has expressed deep concern following the Government’s approval of the Beacon Fen Energy Park, a 1,300-acre industrial solar development that will connect into the already saturated Bicker Fen substation an area now surrounded by multiple overlapping NSIP-scale energy projects.
The decision was signed off by Minister Curran on behalf of the Secretary of State, despite the scale, sensitivity and national implications of the project.
Beacon Fen will be built on a site containing Grades 2 and 3a Best and Most Versatile (BMV) agricultural land, according to the developer’s own Agricultural Land Classification survey.
LAND warns that the continued loss of BMV land is eroding the UK’s food security at a time when Lincolnshire produces around 30 per cent of the nation’s vegetables.
The approval comes amid a cluster of vast solar proposals including Springwell, Heckington Fen, Fosse Green, One Earth Solar, and others, collectively threatening to transform thousands of acres of open countryside into industrial energy sites.
The area around Bicker Fen, where Beacon Fen will connect, is now described by residents as “unrecognisable”.
What was once productive arable land is rapidly becoming a continuous construction zone, with roads, compounds, trenching works and pylons dominating the landscape.
LAND has received dozens of messages from residents in recent weeks.
One member told us: “We’re drowning in applications. Every time we catch our breath, another one drops. It feels like nobody in Government is listening they just keep saying yes.”
Another said: “Since the election, it seems like Labour can’t say no to anything. Even when the Planning Inspectorate recommended refusal for One Earth Solar, the Government waved it through. What’s the point of a planning process if ministers ignore it?”
A single minister deciding the fate of entire counties LAND has repeatedly raised concerns about the NSIP system, where one minister, often a junior minister has the final say on projects that reshape landscapes, food production and communities for decades.
Cat Makinson, campaigner with LAND, said: “We have written to the Prime Minister asking him to open a conversation with us on behalf of the communities now facing deeply uncertain futures.
“Decisions of this magnitude should not rest on the desk of a single minister.
“Lincolnshire deserves better than delegated sign-off on projects that fundamentally alter the largest food-producing county in the UK.
“We urge the Government to look seriously at alternatives to industrial-scale solar and vast transmission lines alternatives that work with communities, not against them.
“Small-scale, locally serving generation reduces the need for costly transmission, strengthens local resilience, and protects the farmland that feeds the nation.
“We also call for a ‘dig once’ approach to undergrounding: if trenching is required, it should be designed to carry multiple cables now and in future, avoiding repeated excavation of huge swathes of countryside.”
LAND supports renewable energy but insists that the UK must pursue it responsibly, prioritising rooftops, brownfield sites, small scale, decentralised generation, agrivoltaics, offshore transmission, strategic undergrounding and full protection of BMV farmland.
The campaign warns that without urgent intervention, Lincolnshire will continue to shoulder a disproportionate burden of national infrastructure with long-term consequences for food production, rural communities and landscape character.
Lincolnshire Against Needless Destruction (LAND)
