Planning Committee agrees to object to plans for a solar farm near Dunbar
At a meeting of East Lothian Planning Committee on Tuesday 4 November, committee members agreed to object to plans for a solar farm and battery energy storage facility on land near Oldhamstocks, Dunbar.
The application had been called off the Scheme of Delegation by Councillor Collins due to extreme local concerns about the project and its potential impact on the local area. The application, by Voltalia UK Ltd, will be decided by the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit (ECU). The council is a statutory consultee.
The plans involved an area of 20 agricultural fields, primarily used for rotational arable and livestock farming, interspersed with areas of woodland. The proposed solar farm and associated infrastructure would span 15 of these fields, including a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) at the northern end of the site. Some residential properties lie within the site boundary and others close by. Developers proposed to operate the site, which includes fencing, lighting and CCTV, for 40 years.
We received 51 objections to the plans for reasons including loss of agricultural land, environmental and biodiversity impact, landscape and visual impact, the effect on the character and amenity of the local community and road safety concerns. Local community councils also objected to the proposals.
Following a debate, committee members voted unanimously to uphold planners’ recommendation that the council strongly object to the proposal due to significant concerns regarding the adequacy of the Environmental Impact Assessment Report and the scale and nature of the potential impacts on the East Lammermuir area and beyond. Following a point made by Councillor McIntosh, a specific objection on access and recreation grounds will be amended to refer to not complying with Scottish access legislation.
As the council has objected to the plans, raising significant concerns, it is now likely that Scottish Ministers will need to hold a Public Enquiry on the application.
Read more including decisions made on other applications that were considered by the committee on our website.