Rural villagers celebrate victory against giant solar farm

Rural villagers from Lincolnshire are celebrating a legal victory, after thwarting an energy company’s plans to convert prime agricultural land into a giant solar farm.

After a lengthy court battle and near three-year objection, residents of three villages have successfully gained a court order to quash the planning approval granted by East Lindsey District Council (ELDC) for the Hatton Solar Farm.

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The planning application was initially submitted by Push Energy in 2022, with plans to install a 49.9MW solar farm with a 132kV substation between the rural villages of Hatton, Sotby and Great Sturton.

The proposed development would have covered 72ha of prime agricultural farmland.

Banding together, local residents held a series of fundraising events to fund the legal campaign to fight the planning approval – resulting in a judicial review which was invoked against ELDC in December last year.

In a statement issued this week, the residents said: “Sustainable energy and security of energy supply is of course important to the UK, but not at the cost of food security.”

The statement highlighted that the risk of widespread flooding in Lincolnshire has already significantly affected and reduced available agricultural land, and that the issue is “becoming more acute”.

The group said that it would be “shortsighted” to place a huge industrial site on high-grade agricultural land which makes an active contribution to food security and crop production.  

What’s next?

Although the initial goal of quashing the planning approval granted by the council has been achieved, this does not prevent Push Energy from proceeding with its application, and again presenting its case to the council planning committee.

The group said that, should this be the case, tit is hopeful that “the numerous concerns that have been raised by Lincolnshire County Council, Baumber Parish Council and the affected communities will be properly considered by the planning officer and the councillors who represent [them] in the ELDC planning committee”.

The group said it would urge the planning policy committee to reject solar farms being placed on good agricultural land.