A solar farm will cost the South Holland economy up to £76.16m, potentially harm mental health and put tourists off visiting the district, the official response from the county council claims.
The Meridian Solar Farm is proposed for 2,700 acres of land at sites north of Crowland and East of Spalding and would link to the power grid via overhead cables at the proposed Weston Marsh Substation.
As it has been designated a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) the government will decide whether it goes ahead or not
Local councils are invited to submit their opinions and this week Lincolnshire County Council’s Planning and Regulation Committee is set to ratify its response at a meeting on Monday, September 7
The document sent to councillors is 281 pages, 110,148 words long and includes reports from consultants it has hired to assess potential impacts to the area.
The response questions why the site was not closer to the proposed Weston Marsh Sub Station, and only looked at land of a certain size.
“It is reasonable to conclude that the area of search used for sites was more a function of landowner willingness and land availability discussions at the time rather than proximity to the grid connection point or consideration of any other environmental constraint,” it argues.
It continues: “The development’s mass and scale: The development has the potential to transform the local landscape by altering its character on a large-scale across an extensive area.”
It goes on to claim the development would have an effect on buildings like Crowland Abbey and ‘the wider historic character of The Fens’ plus on tourist numbers to the likes of Springfields and Baytree Garden Centre.
It claims the development will have an adverse effect on tourists coming to the area.
“This change has the potential to redefine the character of the landscape and affect how it is understood within the historic landscape characterisation framework,” it states.
The document highlights culminative impacts of multiple solar applications and also includes the concerns about the loss of agricultural land and states that all of the site should be considered as ‘best and most versatile’ arable land.
It claims that ‘between £57.24m and £76.16m’ will be lost to the local economy over the 40 years proposed life span of the farm, which excludes any added value from within the supply chain’.
The claims continue that the development ‘has the potential to adversely impact mental health and wellbeing’.
The county council will also say the development will harm the ecology and cause ‘likely significant effect on traffic’, despite ‘the Highways Authority’ (ie, itself) having not raised any objections ‘at this stage’.
At one point the report claims there is ‘uncertainty regarding electromagnetic field’ from the pylons, but it doesn’t say anything about an effect those that those already living near pylons in the area might have experienced.
The authority has objected on waste management and the effect on Public Rights of Way claiming a ‘lack of clarity’ though it doesn’t say where footpaths may be blocked’.
Downing Renewable Developments, which is behind the plans, says it will deliver cheaper and cleaner energy to 215,000 homes while proposing funds to boost the community.
