Planning permission for a major solar farm in Warwickshire has been refused despite being recommended for approval by the council’s own planning team.
The application from clean energy company Enviromena for a 48.9MWp solar installation was turned down, ironically the same day as the new Labour Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said she would overhaul planning restrictions, signalling that the new government was serious about planning reform.
The plans for the 150-acre solar farm at a site close to the M6 near Fillongley, were thrown out by North Warwickshire Borough Council committee members at a planning meeting on Monday, July 8th, going against its own planning officer’s recommendation for approval.
On the same day the Chancellor made a speech making it clear that kick starting economic growth through planning was a top priority for the government. Reeves criticised a “status quo which responds to the existence of trade-offs by always saying “no” and wants to rectify the process as too many construction projects were being rejected due to local conflict.
Mark Harding, Enviromena’s European Development Director, spoke on behalf of the application at the meeting, he said: “It came as a real shock. Up until the committee meeting we had been working well with the Head of Development Control, who had helped shape the project which had no objections from statutory consultees. Despite a recommendation from the Head of Development Control to approve the project, the committee members decided to reject our application which was a complete surprise.
“The ward Councillor for Fillongley and also the Chair of the Planning and Development Board, stood down from his role as Chair ahead of the item being discussed and implored all other members to go against the planning officer’s recommendation to approve and instead, vote to reject it. In our experience, this course of action is highly unusual which resulted in several members commenting that there were no valid planning reasons to turn down the scheme, commending Enviromena in the process.”
The proposed solar installation would have been capable of providing clean power to more than 16,500 homes every year, actively contributing to UK net zero targets by avoiding over 10,000 tonnes of carbon annually.
North Warwickshire Borough Council, which has been under no overall control since last year’s local elections is being led by a Conservative minority administration, refused the project on the subjective basis that it is an inappropriate development in the Green Belt and would cause landscape and visual harm and does not fit with policies from the North Warwickshire Local Plan.
Enviromena disagrees, having put into the plans a number of measures to deliver a significant biodiversity net gain, considerable landscape enhancements through tree and hedgerow planting, a community garden area and flood alleviation measures above and beyond planning requirements to support the wider area including Fillongley village in their battles against flooding.
Mark added: “We believe we’ve gone above and beyond the standard requirements in our planning application, not just on landscaping but on flood plans and mitigation which was raised by the local flood group as a historical issue for the area. Despite consultants and statutory consultees reflecting that the project was very low risk in terms of flooding impacts, we engaged with local community groups who highlighted that flooding was an issue downstream in Fillongley village itself. We considered this in our application by incorporating drainage features to help reduce the speed of water flows into watercourses surrounding the site during periods of heavy rainfall. Frustratingly, the decision reached by North Warwickshire Council will mean that the villagers will not reap the benefits of these proposed flood reduction measures.
“This has also happened in the same week that the new government confirmed that Ed Miliband, the secretary of state for Energy Security and Net Zero, granted development consent orders (DCOs) to three solar-based nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs), totalling over 1.3GW of renewable energy generation capacity. The government wants to get the country building, and this is further proof that this council is out of touch with national policy.
“Ultimately, we believe there are no valid grounds to reject our planning application and we will be taking this to appeal, at an additional cost to both the local authority and Enviromena, and delaying the deployment of this important green energy project.”
For more information, please contact Frankie Peck on 07545962356 or email frankie@leepeckmedia.com.
