Your local community needs your help.  

We all understand the need for sustainable, green energy. However, in increasingly uncertain times, we also need to be able to live up to Lincolnshire being "the bread-basket of the nation"

And we don't have to make a choice between either Green energy or food security. We can have both.

We simply need to ensure that solar is installed on domestic new-build rooftops, warehouse roofs and on the hundreds of available "brownfield sites" across the UK such as abandoned airfields, quarries and industrial parks.

If you believe that solar does not belong on Best Most Versatile farmland then please sign this petition and help stop the Hatton Solar farm development.  This is the wrong development in the wrong place and risks setting a precedent which could lead to the industrialisation of the Lincolnshire countryside and the use of our most precious crop-growing land.  

Thank you so much for your support.

PS - As well as signing the petition you can also object to this application on the East Lindsey District Council (ELDC) planning portal before end of May 2024 (Application: - S/079/01078/22)

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Background

In 2022 PUSH Energy submitted an application to install a huge 49.9MW solar installation with a 132kv sub-station in the small rural village of Hatton, located between Wragby and Horncastle. The panels would cover 178 acres (130 football pitches) of fertile farmland, of which 80% is independently classified as the Best Most Versatile (BMV) agricultural land on the edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds.

The scale of the proposed development would significantly impact the homes and businesses of many of the residents of Hatton, Great Sturton and Sotby, not to mention the abundance of local wildlife that relies upon access to this land from Sotby Woods. 

Unfortunately, there are many hundreds of similar applications flooding into Planning Departments across our country. Should these all be approved this would result in the loss of many hundreds of thousands of acres of UK farmland, meaning that the UK could easily sleepwalk into a national food supply crisis and our beautiful countryside could soon be littered with such industrial developments.

The community have therefore come together and launched a Judicial Review. The outcome of this was that the original decision by East Lindsey District Council in March 2023 to approve the Hatton Solar Farm application was deemed "unlawful" as it did not fully consider the impact of using of BMV Land. The decision was therefore successfully quashed.  

The application will now be re-determined, and, in line with the National Planning Framework, must ensure that the loss of quality BMV land is given the serious consideration that is required under governmental planning guidance.

Reasons to Oppose

There are many reasons why this development should not go ahead

• Protecting food security  -  this is inappropriate use of BMV land and is also land that does not flood. Food could not be grown on this land for another 40 years ; maybe never. Food prices are already increasing and the risk of flooding and war has is higher than ever.  The need to protect food security is why government guidance (and also Lincolnshire County Council guidance) clearly states that all viable alternatives to using BMV land must be demonstrated. THIS HAS NOT BEEN DONE.  
• Increased traffic and impact on the local road network - Over a thousand HGV trips will be made during the course of the construction period, and this excludes the number of smaller vehicles carry construction staff and other materials. The roads surrounding the site are tiny single-track roads with no pavements, no passing places and soft verges with ditches and are not suitable for this construction traffic.  There have been several accidents recently where vehicles have over-turned.
• Visual impact  on our countryside   -  this development would industrialise the local landscape for generations. It would be visible from many local properties, including a Grade 2 Listed farmhouse. It also is adjacent to a number of public footpath's and a bridleway, thus ruining people's enjoyment of these amenities. The panels are 3m high and would be surrounded by nearly 7km of high security fencing and CCTV poles.
• Cumulative impact and future expansion   -    the risk of solar industrial farms “sprawling”, one becoming two, two becoming  three….the addition of large battery storage farms…..this is the reality which is unfolding in many other areas of the UK, and is a huge concern for our local area. The application which has been submitted includes a new Substation of much larger capacity than is actually needed for this development, a clear sign of the planned future expansion into other areas surrounding Hatton, such as Baumber and Wragby
• Health and Safety - a large diameter high-pressure gas pipeline crosses the proposed site. Since solar farm electrical fires are a known risk (with the most recent fire being at Burton Pedwardin in Feb 2024) the risk of a major gas explosion cannot be discounted 
• Zero Community Benefit - Despite Push Energy’s incorrect claims when canvassing local towns that this will result in lower electricity prices for the neighbouring towns, this is absolutely not correct. There will be no benefit to the community