FORTY local people have lodged objections to a plan to build a solar farm on farm land at Lymm.
But 16 people have written letters to Warrington Borough Council supporting the scheme, put forward by Lymm Community Energy Ltd, a Community Benefit Society set up in 2014 .
The proposed 2.5mw solar farm would be at Wildersmoor Hall Farm, off Higher Lane, Lymm.
Lymm Parish Council is supporting the project, and planning officers are recommending the scheme be approved when it goes before Warrington’s development management committee on Thursday next week, subject to conditions.
The proposed site is about five hectares in size and is in the Green Belt.
Officers say the loss of agricultural land and landscape harm will be outweighed by the environmental benefits of renewable energy.
They say the impact on the local highway network and nearby residential amenity are acceptable. Access will be gained via tracks from Higher Lane and Whiteleggs Lane, both of which would be more than 300m in length.
Objectors say it would be inappropriate development in the Green Belt and harm the openness of the area.
There would be a permanent loss of high grade agricultural land.
Lymm Parish Council – which has declared a climate emergency – says it supports the proposal.
4 Comments
David,
As the Project Coordinator for LEAF ( Lymm Environment Action Forum) O must point out that we are huge supporters of the proposal to build this 2.5 Mw Solar Farm on poor quality Farmland at Wildersmoor Farm off Whiteleggs Lane here in Lymm as when completed it will be fairly inconspicuous and the panels will be mounted on stilts such that sheep can shelter and graze beneath them and they will be angled such that they catch the best of the sun which we all know rises in the East and sets in the West so they will not reflect strong sunlight reflections and dazzle into the windows of local residents. and it will quickly merge into the natural surroundings of the area
Once the project is completed the panels will be a huge asset to Lymm producing sufficient “green” energy. to power over 400 homes and arguably more importantly, it could provide enough green energy to power Lymm High School where the next generation of over c.2,000 current young pupils will become interested in the technology which will undoubtedly power their homes in the future .
As the Project Coordinator for LEAF I must say that the article you have produced today for Warrington Worldwide and which has also appeared in Love Lymm Locals today I find to be extremely biassed in favour of the current objectors, when in fact there were 104 responses to the consultation survey which took place in 2021 and 88% were in favour of the project. Please could we ask you to visit and arvertise the website at http://www.lymmcommunityenergy.co.uk/lymm-solar-farm and then invite interested Locals to put their support behind this initiative which has been worked up and produced by a small team of ‘local’ volunteers who have freely given many hours of their time for the benefit of the future generations of Lymm and we think that would be a far better headline than the one you have used which favours 40 NIMBY objectors
I reject the claim that my article is biased in favour of anything! It is simply a report of what is going before the development management committee next week. I personally have no view, one way or the other on this application
Surely it is better to prioritise putting Solar panels on every workable roof in the first instance, especially on industrial, school, agricultural buildings, and then every viable (ie with the right aspect) new home. Then put panels over car parks (pepper street gets lots of sun) before we put them over pasture????!!!!
Great idea to put panels on rooftops. In fact, the Lymm community group trying to make this happen have already put panels onto the roofs of 4 local primary schools which have been helping the schools manage their tight budgets for 10 years now. Unfortunately it’s a complex process and you can’t put panels on every roof everywhere. Not all rooftops are suitable/strong enough for a start. Some are actually on shade and some are on conservation areas. WBC have sorted a megawatt of PV on the Plastic Omnium warehouse and a quick look on Google maps and anyone can see several megawatts of panels across Omega.
As for agricultural use and pasture, the farmer currently uses the field for agriculture. He grazes sheep on it. He plans to continue grazing sheep on it, hopefully for the whole 40 year lifespan of the solar farm. Hopefully not the same sheep though! Despite what it says in the article, this site will still be used for agriculture, farming WILL continue to happen, biodiversity will be enhanced.
Not sure you could say the same if the farmer decided to put a 3 storey sprawling ‘chicken shed’ on the site as seen elsewhere locally in greenbelt.
Oh, and the planning application includes a clause to return the site to current condition when the panels are removed.