Solar farm in the pipeline for Burwell farmland

Another solar farm is in the pipeline for farmland just outside Newmarket after a plans to build a nearly 200 acre facility were submitted.

Farm land near Burwell and Reach could be covered with 150,000 solar panels for the next forty years under proposals lodged by AGR Group and Fenland Farming Ltd.

The site will have more than three miles of deer fencing along with access roads from Hightown Drove and Newnham Drove, new hedgerow, and 45 four metre high CCTV cameras towering over the site.

It is the latest solar farm under consideration in the area, with the controversial Sunnica scheme which would see 1,700 acres of land covered in panels planned for land close to Worlington and Freckenham with a smaller site in Chippenham, Snailwell and Burwell , and plans by Cambridgeshire County Council to build another facility in Soham.

If the development is built on the farmland, the Burwell solar farm is expected to generate almost 50 megawatts at peak operating hours.

The farm earmarked for the facility has been used to grow sugar beet, wheat, potatoes and maize and was described in plans as 'high grade' agricultural land.

But Natural England has told East Cambridgeshire District Council it has no objection to the proposals.

Danielle Priestner, of its consultations team, said the development was "unlikely to lead to the significant long term loss of best and most versatile agricultural land as a resource for future generations".