Safety plan for UK’s biggest solar farm in Kent refused
Protesters gathered to urge councillors to reject the plans
A battery safety plan for what is set to be the UK’s biggest solar farm has been refused.
Councillors voted down the proposals after almost four hours of debate and despite warnings of a “high risk there will be costs” to the council for rejecting them.
The government gave the green light for the Cleve Hill Solar Park, located in Graveney, between Faversham and Whitstable, in May 2020.
Members of Swale Borough Council’s (SBC) planning committee met to vote on the battery safety management plan for the site.
The plans require a 25-acre 150-megawatt battery storage facility to store energy generated by the 880,000 solar panels at the site.
However, the safety plan has faced intense local opposition, with more than 100 Swale residents writing in to the council to criticise the proposals.
A protest was held outside Swale Borough Council’s offices in Sittingbourne ahead of the meeting.
Carol Goatham, one of the protestors at the meeting, said:
“The battery safety plan as it stands does not have any warning system in place, it does not have any evacuation plans for approximately 30,000 people who could be impacted if the solar panels caught fire or if the batteries themselves, which are lithium ion batteries, either catch on fire or explode."
Over the course of the meeting, councillors sought to refuse the plans, with many complaining about the technical nature of the proposals and that they were not in a position to properly decide.
Members voted to refuse it on grounds of the lack of water storage facilities on site, lack of access to the battery storage area, and the lack of an evacuation emergency plan.
There were 11 votes in favour, three against and two abstentions.