Solar farm project a bad sign of things to come

Last week in the East Anglian Daily Times, Paul Geater decided to use his column to criticise the Conservative position on the Sunnica solar farm. Locally, we’ve always been clear; Councils, Councillors and MPs remain opposed to what is the worst big energy scheme we’ve ever seen.

It is disappointing that the previous government did not make a decision on Sunnica before the general election but, in studying the detail, it is understandable. The then Secretary of State, Claire Coutinho, was presented with a recommendation to refuse the scheme. To ensure the decision was fair and, critically, robust, she chose to request additional information and clarifications from Natural England and the applicant.

The new Secretary of State, Ed Miliband, took just three days to decide to approve the project. A decision he took, contrary to the advice of the independent Planning Inspectorate, who thought it should be thrown out.

Let us remind ourselves of why this scheme was so bad and should have been refused. Its vast scale will take over 2,000 acres of agricultural land out of food production, and permanently change a unique landscape shaped by agriculture and horseracing. The quality of the proposals was so poor that even at examination the true impact on local communities was unknown, and what mitigation Sunnica did propose was not tailored to the local area. It now falls on local authorities like us, and community groups, to weigh up the decision and consider our next steps.

Ed Miliband’s decision sends a worrying message to Suffolk and East Anglia. People are rightly asking if a bad project is approved, against the advice of the Planning Inspector, what will it take for a project to be refused? Suffolk has pylon, offshore wind, solar, and interconnector schemes coming, and, following the new government’s announcement, most likely onshore wind too.

A big manifesto pledge from the new Labour government – to decarbonise the electricity grid by 2030 - has gone largely unnoticed locally, but it’s a huge concern. It’s five years earlier than planned under the last government and it’s an unachievable goal. It’s also faster than even the independent Climate Change Committee recommended for the country to be able to reach net zero by 2050!

By placing unnecessary pressure on the system, the new government has created a rod for its own back. By now, civil servants and the industry will have advised Labour that the promise in their manifesto is not possible, for reasons including technology availability and supply chain issues. They will already be in panic mode, to try to save this landmark pledge. Now we can see why they approved the Sunnica scheme. They will need to approve any and all projects, however bad, and rapidly bring forward more, to even get within touching distance of their goal.

For Suffolk’s communities, already feeling the pressure from a vast number of schemes, this is bad news. At the County Council, we’ve been working hard to encourage the government to improve the way big energy schemes are brought forward. We need fairness for communities, coordination between big schemes and proper communication from developers.

Such is the scale of what needs to be built to generate and transmit the energy we need as a country, what we’ve seen so far is just the beginning. The reality is truly transformational - these schemes will fundamentally change the places people live, love and work. Of course, there are opportunities too, and these need to be maximised. Sizewell C alone will bring over 900 permanent jobs and see over £4.4bn spent in the local economy.

We all agree with the need for energy security and clean energy. But we must do it properly and we must carry communities with us. In his wild-eyed haste, the new Secretary of State is missing the human impact of these schemes.

I agree with the Institute for Government who said in 2021, that, “Building and maintaining public consent will be the defining challenge of the next three decades of decarbonisation”.

However, we appear to be in the hands of a Secretary of State who has forgotten that politics is about meeting people where they really are, not where you wish them to be. He needs to adapt to that reality or the targets he wants to bring forward will drift further out of reach.