Despite being recommended for approval by the planning officer, North Warwickshire Borough Council committee members voted against the 150-acre solar farm set up for development on a site near the M6 at Fillongley.
The decision, taken on July 8, came on the day Rachel Reeves, Labor chancellor, pledged to “rebuild Britain”.
Reeves had criticized a “status quo that responds to the existence of compromises by always saying “no,” with too many construction projects being rejected due to local conflicts. Yesterday, July 17, the King’s Speech built on the proposal to plan reforms as a major boost to the British economy.
According to the speech: “Ministers will get Britain building, including through planning reforms, as they look to accelerate the delivery of quality infrastructure and housing.”
The Planning and Infrastructure Bill promises to provide more resources to hire the 300 new planners. Labor says this will help speed up approvals for new homes. It will also, crucially for the development of renewable energy projects, simplify the consent process for major infrastructure projects.
Kicking off his premiership as secretary of state for energy security and net zero, Ed Miliband granted development consent orders (DCOs) for three nationally important infrastructure projects (NSIPs), two of which had been postponed under the Conservative government.
North Warwickshire Borough Council is led by a Conservative minority administration and has rejected the project on the grounds that it is an inappropriate development in the Green Belt and would cause landscape and visual damage.
Enviromena disagrees, as it has included in the plans a number of measures to achieve a significant net gain for biodiversity, significant landscape improvements through the planting of trees and hedges, a communal garden and measures to reduce flooding beyond planning requirements to support the wider area including the village of Fillongley. in their fight against flooding.
Mark Harding, Enviromena’s European development director, said: “Until the committee meeting we had worked well with the head of development control, who had helped shape the project and there were no objections from statutory advisers. 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.
“We believe we have gone above and beyond the standard requirements in our planning application, not only in landscaping, but also in flood planning and mitigation, which has been identified by the local flood control group as a historic issue for the area.
“The government wants to build the country, and this is further evidence that this council is out of touch with national policies.
“Ultimately, we believe that there are no valid grounds for refusing our planning application and we will appeal this, at additional cost to both the local authority and Enviromena, and delay the implementation of this important green energy project.”
