‘Huge concerns’ over plans for Kingsway Solar Farm in Cambridgeshire to be one of Europe’s largest
A 1,500-hectare solar farm proposed for Cambridgeshire that could power 175,000 homes is causing “huge concerns”, according to a county councillor.
Kingsway Solar Farm would be constructed on land to the south-east of Cambridge, around Balsham, West Wratting, Weston Colville and Weston Green and would supply about 500 megawatts of electricity to the national grid. Pylons with suspended cables would connect it to the Burwell substation.
Cllr Alan Sharp (Con, Woodditton) said the plans are causing “great concern around the community”.
Kingsway would be a third bigger than the planned Sunnica solar farm, which will cover around 1,000 hectares of land across four sites around the East Cambridgeshire villages of Isleham, Chippenham, Kennett and Snailwell, and Freckenham and Worlington in Suffolk.
Sunnica was approved by the government last year, despite objections from the community and councils.
Like Sunnica, Kingsway has been classified as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP), which means a decision on whether it can go ahead will be made by a secretary of state.
The project, from Downing Renewable Developments, is at the pre-application stage, with plans expected to be submitted later this year.
Cllr Sharp told a meeting of Cambridgeshire County Council’s environment and green investment committee last Thursday (March 13) that villagers had “huge concerns” about living beside one of the largest solar farms in Europe. It will “change the lives of those residents for a very, very long time”, he added.
Council officers asked councillors for delegated powers to allow the authority to respond quickly to requests for information during the examination process.
Cllr Steve Tierney (Con, Wisbech West) asked whether they would “use that power to fight to stop the proposal”.
Officers said they would be providing technical responses from experts within the council.
Cllr Steve Count (Con, March North and Waldersey) was “unhappy” about delegating the powers and suggested it may not have been necessary if the committee met more often, as it had in the past.
He said the committee should be asked on its views to inform the responses provided.
Cllr Ros Hathorn (Lib Dem, Histon and Impington) said it was important the authority looked at what mitigation measures would be needed if the solar farm was built.
She said in the case of the Wisbech Incinerator, the council had responded with a “strong ‘reject this’ message”, only for the project to be “pushed through anyway”.
She pointed out: “Because we were not focusing on what mitigations we needed for that development to go ahead, we have not got them in the conditions.
“So I think it is really important that we work out what we need to support these infrastructure projects and that is clearly in the response that we give to this NSIP consultation.”
A majority of the committee agreed to delegate authority to officers to submit responses to the NSIP process on behalf of the council in consultation with the chair and vice chair of the committee, only on occasions when there is not enough time for a report to be presented to councillors.
