MP reveals scathing criticisms of massive solar energy project
PLANS for a massive solar farm - straddling parts of Rotherham and the Dearne area - have been dealt a significant blow with MP Sarah Champion registering objections to the scheme.
The Whitestone plan has already provoked a major community backlash and the scheme is so large it will take a Government decision, rather than conventional local planners, on whether it can eventually go ahead.
The Whitestone proposals cover three linked developments and Ms Champion has written to the company involved raising concerns over Whitestone 2, one of those elements, which would impinge on her constituency.
Her letter states that it would “see substantial areas of agricultural land within my constituency developed, principally land to the north east of Treeton.
“The project will also involve infrastructure installation in neighbouring Brinsworth, also within my constituency, where the solar farm will connect to the grid at a new substation also currently under development.”
However, she believes there would be wider implications for constituents suffering “the loss of large areas of open countryside neighbouring the Rotherham constituency.”
Whitestone 2 would cover “a staggering 1,816 acres, more than half the 3,400 acres involved in the broader Whitestone project,” she said.
“This is productive, agricultural and, which is at a premium in Rotherham, a primarily urban constituency.
“The loss of valuable green space will have a serious adverse effect on my constituents, not only those in Treeton and Brinsworth, but those throughout Rotherham who are currently able to access and enjoy the area.”
She also highlighted the “profound impact on local food production” from losing the land.
Recent development in the area has seen almost 4,000 new homes go up as part of the Waverley development and the impact of construction traffic on nearby communities would also be “appalling”, she has told the company.
The character of Treeton, which had been left “somewhat separated from neighbouring communities and it has been, to a degree, preserved from urban sprawl” would also be put in danger from the development, she said.
Solar farms are contentious because plans involve large swathes of land. with a visual, as well as practical impact.
But the Government has a policy of switching the country towards renewable energy and developers argue solar farms play an important role in that strategy.