It’s war on green energy infrastructure in the area as South Holland District Council unanimously passed a motion calling for the protection of Fenland.
Coun Laura Eldridge’s motion ‘Preservation of Fenland Landscape and Recognition of South Holland as a Critical Food Producing Area’ was said to be the first brought to the authority in decades.
And the ward member for The Saints received an ovation for her five-minute speech on the motion saying the proposals would be ‘catastrophic’ for the area.
“South Holland is currently faced with the threat of multiple national significant infrastructure projects, which if granted, would remove colossal swathes of land for crop production,” she said, claiming 50 per cent of all jobs in the area were linked to the food industry. “While these projects as described as being temporary in nature their 40-year presence is a significant part of anyone’s lifetime.
“While delivering green energy is crucial to meeting net zero targets, there is a very real threat to our farms and homegrown produce.
“This concerns me greatly as it does many residents.
“Greater Lincolnshire is the bread basket of the country providing 30 per cent of the nation’s vegetables, 20 per cent of sugar beat, 18 per cent of poultry and 12 per cent of all food.
“In 2020 the UK imported 46 per cent of the food it consumed. If we’re forced to import to support ourselves we risk become victims of price dictatorship and supply issues.
“Green energy should not be at the cost of future food security.
“The solo impact of any project would be enormous, the culminative impact nothing less than catastrophic.
“This is not about NIMBYism, it’s about the impact on us as a district and country removing ginormous swathes of our most productive land and covering them in pylons, wind farms, solar panels and substations at the expense of our nation’s food security is, in my opinion, short-sighted, ruthless and irresponsible.
“We as a community are custodians of South Holland and we need to do everything to improve the district for our past, present and future residents.
“It’s the government’s responsibility to listen to local communities who know their area and its value and who are warning Whitehall of the repercussions if these are not taking these seriously.”
All councillors backed the motion.
Coun Angie Harrison spoke of ‘mind-numbing noise’, Paul Barnes of plummeting house prices, Paul Redgate said it would cause further flooding problems, while Henry Bingham highlighted just ‘one applications is nearly twice the allocated land for commercial and for homes for the entirety of South Holland for the full length of the local plan’.
Coun Elizabeth Sneath criticised trees being proposed to screen a site at Surfleet.
“I and many farming friends have grave concerns about it,” she said. “The unnatural planting of great swathes of trees in our flat fields is unacceptable and unnatural.
“Such an area of trees would host thousands of pigeons and other wild birds that would devastate crops within 20 miles of their nests.
“I love trees, but the right tree is vital. We’ve not been a thickly forested area for thousands of years.
“Planting such as this will not only alter our lovely views and big skies but allow these many thousands of birds to eat even more of our crops and our food security is vital.”
Leader of the district council Nick Worth said: “In Holbeach St Marks we had a solar farm refused and I think it was the only time I’ve seen the village wound up.
“It wasn’t about NIMBYism, it’s about the fact they would lose large swathes of land to solar panels.
“Everybody needs to eat. We need to be producing more food, not less food.
“We should be growing more than we’re importing.
“To use the best land in the country for solar panels, wind turbines, pylons, whatever it is and to not even get anything benefit from it, is disgraceful.
“I spoke to a company in Lincolnshire a week ago who are taking some large machinery out to California to bury cables out there. If they can do it there why can’t we do it here.
“Farming and agriculture is part of this community.
“It’s not just those that work on the farms, it’s the support industries too. It affects a massive amount of people.”
The fight against the proposed infrastructure should start with objections to the proposed Weston Marsh substation, a councillor has claimed.
Coun Rob Gibson, (pictured) leader of the opposition at SHDC, praised Coun Eldrigde’s motion, but said ‘it didn’t go far enough’.
“We should be demanding answers from the companies about how much the pylons would cost compared to going offshore,” he said. “We should be asking them to think again.”
Coun Eldridge replied: “I tried to sneak a few things in, but was told I wasn’t allowed.”
She and several other Conservative councillors criticised, despite most of the applications having been submitted before the election.
Coun Gibson said: “The new government are pressing hard for net zero and should be called out at every opportunity, but let’s not forget the Weston Marsh substation was signed off last year and it wasn’t under this government but the previous one.
“I asked the solar farm proposed for Moulton why here? They said if it wasn’t for that substation they wouldn’t even consider it.
“That’s where we need to start the fight. Without that none of this would be coming through here.”
The Weston Marsh substation is part of the application for the pylon plan between Grimsby and Walpole.
