‘Huge concerns’ over Kingsway Solar Farm which could see panels installed in Balsham, West Wratting, Weston Colville and Weston Green

People have ‘huge concerns’ about plans to build a new solar farm in Cambridgeshire that could be bigger than Sunnica, a councillor has said.

Councillor Alan Sharp (Conservative) said plans for the Kingsway Solar Farm were causing ‘great concern around the community’.

The proposed solar farm would cover 1,500 hectares of land to the southeast of Cambridge. The Sunnica solar farm, approved last year, will cover around 1,000 hectares of land.

The Kingsway Solar Farm could see solar panels installed on land around the areas of Balsham, West Wratting, Weston Colville, and Weston Green.

The solar farm could potentially supply around 500 megawatts of electricity to the national grid, enough to power approximately 175,000 homes.

Suspended cables by pylon are proposed to connect the solar farm to the Burwell substation.

The project has been classified as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP), which means a decision on whether it can go ahead will be made by the relevant Secretary of State.

The project is currently in the pre-application stage, with an application expected later this year.

Cllr Sharp told a meeting of Cambridgeshire County Council’s environment and green investment committee on Thursday (March 13) that people living in the villages that would be impacted by the solar farm had ‘huge concerns’ about the plans.

He said the project would be one of the largest solar farms in Europe and would ‘change the lives of those residents for a very, very long time’.

Officers at the county council asked councillors for delegated powers to allow the authority to be able to respond quickly to requests for information during the examination process.

Councillor Steve Tierney (Conservative) asked if the power was delegated as requested would they “use that power to fight to stop the proposal”.

Officers said they would be providing technical responses from experts within the council.

Councillor Steve Count (Conservative) said he was ‘unhappy’ about delegating the powers and said it may not have been necessary if the committee met more often as it had done in the past.

He said the committee should be asked on its views to inform the responses provided by the authority during the examination process.

Councillor Ros Hathorn (Liberal Democrat) said it was important the authority did look at what mitigation measures would be needed if the solar farm was built.

She said in the case of the Wisbech Incinerator, the council had responded with a ‘strong reject this message’, only for the project to be ‘pushed through anyway’.

Cllr Hathorn said: “Because we were not focusing on what mitigations we needed for that development to go ahead, we have not got them in the conditions.

“So I think it is really important that we work out what we need to support these infrastructure projects and that is clearly in the response that we give to this NSIP consultation.”

The majority of the committee agreed to delegate authority to officers to submit responses to the NSP process on behalf of the county council, in consultation with the chair and vice chair of the committee, only on occasions when there is not enough time for a report to be presented to councillors.