Villagers join forces to oppose solar farm projects with fears of countryside becoming ‘industrial wasteland’
RESIDENTS from more than 30 Lincolnshire villages have joined forces to collectively reject a multitude of solar farm plans across the county’s rural landscape.
The 7,000 Acres group was set up around 18 months ago, but as more solar farm project applications have emerged in the area in recent times, defiance from the residents has only grown.
The members are all within visible distance from a total of four major solar farm developments — situated at West Burton, Tillbridge, Cottam and Gate Burton. Such is the scope of the proposed projects, the initial 7,000 Acres group name is now redundant, as these collective projects would cover around 13,000 acres within a six mile radius.
To mitigate this, the group is now called 7,000 Acres+. Rather than make their concerns heard on individual projects, residents in surrounding villages and hamlets have teamed up to make their individual voices louder as a collective.
The reasons for this, residents say, are plentiful. Fears of the impact on food production and wildlife conservation are apparent, as are the potential visuals of the solar panels ruining the sweeping countryside views this area of Lincolnshire has become synonymous with.
Jamie Allan is one of the main group organisers, and says the issue is one they’ve been calling out for a while, but it has recently “ballooned beyond anything we first reacted to.”
“It’s like a Klondike rush,” he said. “My concerns are threefold mainly, and that is energy security, food security and landscape impact. Solar will help us go greener, but it is not the answer to energy balance. Solar is intermittent and does nothing during the night or in winter, so we still need to turn on our gas power stations. Energy is such a basic in society, so net zero must be managed sensitively.” Mr Allan added: “Secondly we have food security. By virtue of stopping that alone, it’s a problem. We’ve seen farmers in London demonstrating about a lack of support, and this is an opportunity for us to prevent losing even more land. Why would you put solar panels on prime agricultural land when you can put them on factory roofs or new houses?”
Jamie fears it will “transform the whole landscape” of Lincolnshire’s countryside, and create “fields of black panels.”
“I came here 20 years ago to live in the countryside, not an industrial wasteland,” he added.
This was largely echoed by fellow group member Simon Skelton, who said his property will be “surrounded” by these developments. For him, though, it is about much more than that. He said: “There is no public support for these things, no proper engagement and no loyalty to any promises that are made.
“If the government wants to take us down this Net Zero path, you must first take the population with you on this journey, not just force them to tag along.
“This area could become a very sorry place to live, and these proposals would make sense if it would outright solve issues around climate change or energy generation, but it doesn’t.”
He argues some 30 per cent of the area’s countryside farmland would be lost to solar farm projects if they all get the green light, and feels the amount of energy this will produce is “so out of proportion” compared to what might be lost by converting the agricultural land.
This is the view of Jerry Parker, as well, who said he was “totally against giving up our productive farmland to such an extent, for something that produces such little power.”
Mr Parker said there are “better” and “more efficient” ways of focusing on green energy and renewables than this, describing the current Net Zero targets as a “juggernaut of what politicians want to see, without the full understanding of what it means to communities.”
“It should be on the rooftops and where the power will be used. That is where it should be generated, but effectively it is being exported from rural communities for larger, urban cities. None of it feels like a fair trade off.
“I totally get why landowners are doing it, it’s good economics for them, but as a country we should be
Effectively it is being exported from rural communities for larger, urban cities..