Sacrificing 10k acres of farmland for solar farms could power all Lincolnshire homes

Plans for three new solar farms in Lincolnshire could provide enough energy to power all of the county’s homes, but opponents say it will sacrifice thousands of acres of valuable farmland

Three separate applications have been made for sites in West Lindsey including the Cottom Solar, the Gate Burton Solar and the Tillbridge Solar applications, totalling nearly 10,000 acres.

If approved in full, the sites estimate they would create around 1,150MW of electricity combined, powering around 350,000 homes — enough for all households in Lincolnshire.

Local councillors, the local MP and residents, however, believe this would make West Lindsey the district which takes the brunt of solar panels in the county.

In fact Sir Edward Leigh, the Gainsborough MP, believes it may be one of the largest developments in the country.

“The sheer scale of this is enormous. We’re talking about 10,000 acres in this district of West Lindsey – that’s more than any other region of the United Kingdom,” he said.

Lincolnshire County Councillor Richard Butroid, Gainsborough MP Sir Edward Leigh and Burton Gate Hall’s Henry Morris all believe the amount of panels to be excessive. | Image: Daniel Jaines

There are an estimated 5,000 residents around the sites of the three plans, with some communities facing being surrounded by panels.

Opponents fear the site would result in a major loss of farmland, as well as ruining beautiful vistas and walking routes through the county.

Sir Leigh said planning assumptions indicated that grade one, two or three agricultural land would be used, and those against the plans say the land should be used for agriculture instead.

“We have a crisis in food production. There are many industrial sites, brownfield sites, better sites, rather than this beautiful rolling countryside where we could have solar panels, so this is totally out of proportion.”

A drone shot showing the extent of the solar panels from Gate Burton Hall out. | Image: supplied

Edward Leigh said: “With the war in Ukraine, and wheat prices going through the roof, it is madness to take this amount of good agricultural land out of production.

“Do we want 10,000 acres of good agricultural land in the breadbasket of England taken out of agricultural use?”

However, he added that he wasn’t against solar farms in principle.

“With good landscaping, and and if it’s reduced considerably in size and taken away from footpaths, roads and villages, it might well be bearable, but we’re nowhere near that at the moment,” he said.

A map of Gate Burton Solar Farm’s proposed site.

Councillor Richard Butroid, who represents Gainsborough Rural South on Lincolnshire County Council, said the areas around Gate Burton were “absolutely stunning”.

He said his issue wasn’t just the panels, but the infrastructure and noise that came along with it.

“These are shipping containers that are going to be planted across our fields,” he said.

“Our public right of ways are going to have fences in either side of them to protect the panels, and you’re not going to feel like you’re walking through any decent countryside anymore and that’s a loss for a generation.”

Opponents fear vistas like these will be lost. | Image: Daniel Jaines

He also fears the RAF Red Arrows might not be able to practice over Scampton (even after moving to RAF Waddington) should the panels be built, due to glare and danger to pilots if they need to eject for any reason.

Henry Morris, whose family owns Gate Burton Hall, said the plans would have a “huge” effect on the tranquility and visual amenity of the village of Gate Burton – which is around 50m from the nearest border.

He said there would be 180 degree views of solar panels from the village once build.

The owners estimate that during construction nearly 200 vehicles a day would cause noise, dust, visual and vibration pollution on one of the sites alone.

“It’s going to have a devastating effect on the local area, there’s plenty of bridleways and public footpaths around here, all of which are going to be obscured by security fencing, cameras, the panels themselves, and the storage station.”

The Cottom Solar Farm plans.

He said several areas of nearby land were covered by Heritage England as heritage listed parkland, while the nearby 1800s Grade II listed St Helen’s Church would also be affected.

Low Carbon recently announced that more than 120 people had responded to its second consultation exercise and was hoping to submit the final plans to the Planning Inspectorate by early 2023.

Company representatives said they were “grateful” for the feedback submitted and would use the comments to help “shape and refine” the details of the scheme.

The Tillbridge plans are the latest to be submitted.

Mike Rutgers, Development Director at Low Carbon said: “We’ve had some really constructive discussions and welcome the insight those conversations and subsequent feedback submitted to the consultation.

“Feedback covers a range of issues regarding the scheme, and we’ve also received some fantastic suggestions for projects and initiatives to consider supporting to benefit those communities nearest the site.

“We do also acknowledge that solar development stirs up strong feelings and we will bear that in mind as we continue to finalise our proposals.”

“The team is now focused on reviewing all the feedback submitted, alongside the findings from ongoing technical studies and environmental surveys, to help shape and refine the details of the scheme.”

Cottam Solar is hoping to submit its plans by in late 2022 and Tillbridge is hoping to submit theirs in the second half of 2023.