Dismay for campaigners as government approves 2,500-acre Sunnica solar farm

Controversial plans for a huge solar farm have been approved by energy secretary Ed Miliband.

The government ruling over Sunnica’s 2,500-acre farm, which is the equivalent of about 2,000 football pitches, will dismay campaigners, who have long opposed the plans.

The decision has been postponed multiple times but now the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero has granted development consent for the application.

A decision letter said Mr Miliband considered the benefits of the development outweighed its adverse impacts and outstanding matters relating to habitat regulations had been satisfied.

Residents in Chippenham, Isleham, Freckenham, Fordham, West Row, Worlington, Burwell, Barton Mills, Red Lodge and Snailwell will all be affected by the solar farm, which will stretch around 15 miles from end to end and affects 16 parishes and towns along its route.

It will be built across four sites, two in East Cambridgeshire, one near Mildenhall and West Row and another near Freckenham and Worlington.

They will all be connected by cables running underground.

The Say No to Sunnica Community Action Group said the farm would be built on some of the UK’s best, high-yielding irrigated farmland and has questioned the design and location.

The scheme had been rejected by parish councils, district councils and by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk County Councils.

Sunnica said the land used would be decontaminated and returned to its original, largely agricultural use once the scheme was finished.

It said the farm would power 172,000 homes and create 1,500 jobs during construction, with 27 full-time jobs to run it.

Suffolk County and West Suffolk Councils have expressed their shock and disappointment at Mr Miliband’s decision.

Cllr Richard Rout, the county council’s deputy cabinet member for nationally significant infrastructure projects, said: “The approval of this solar farm is a massive blow to local communities, agriculture, nature and our landscape in the west of Suffolk.

“I am frankly shocked that the poorest infrastructure application that I have ever dealt with, has now been approved - we highlighted numerous deficiencies in the submission.

“The voices of thousands of local residents, businesses and organisations have not been listened to.

“This scheme will permanently and detrimentally impact the landscape of a vast part of West Suffolk and remove thousands of acres of land from food production.

“Despite some improvements to the initial application, we felt that the proposals did not meet the standards we, and local communities, would expect from a project on this scale.

“Local residents will quite rightly be asking what it takes for a project to be refused, when the worst project we have dealt with gets consented in the face of so much opposition.”

When opposing the plans, Cllr Anna Bailey, the Conservative leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council, said: “Our planning committee unanimously confirmed the view of officers that the benefits of the Sunnica scheme did not outweigh the harm that would be caused. The scheme takes away large amounts of food production land, provides no direct benefit to local people and is of a scale that is simply overwhelming to local communities, residents and businesses.”

Reacting to Mr Miliband’s decision Cllr Jim Thorndyke, cabinet member for planning at West Suffolk Council, said: “Many of our local towns and parishes and the Sunnica Action Group have raised concerns about the impact of this application.

“West Suffolk Council has listened, and it has also reviewed the information from Sunnica.

“Together with Suffolk County Council, East Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridgeshire County Council, we have all objected to the application citing concerns about the impact it will have.So I am disappointed by today’s decision.

“We are fully committed to solar and other renewable energy to help tackle climate change.

“But Sunnica’s proposals are too big and in the wrong location and we will now be carefully reviewing the decision to understand how it has been reached.”

In the decision letter, Mr Miliband said he considered a solar farm to be a temporary and reversible development and there is no evidence to suggest that agriculture cannot be reestablished on the land temporarily lost.

He said the applicant’s site selection process and proposed mitigation, including screening via planting, have minimised harm to the landscape and impacts on visual effects as far as possible.

The full decision was set out in a 76-page report.

The development application, which was the subject of several lengthy public inquiries, was set to be decided at the start of 2023 but was pushed back several times.

In a statement, Sunnica said: “Sunnica is immensely pleased with the decision by the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero to grant development consent for Sunnica Energy Farm. Sunnica would make a nationally significant contribution towards the UK’s legal obligation to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and its ongoing energy security.

“This important milestone and the decision by the Secretary of State has come after many months of intense scrutiny and robust engagement with the planning process, and wider public consultations. We will now move forward towards the implementation phase, ultimately allowing us to create clean renewable energy for the UK, and look forward to meeting with local authorities and the wider community to plan the next steps.”