Kingsway Solar Development

I am aware of and understand the concerns that this proposed national infrastructure project is causing locally and in particular, the serious concerns around the new land parcel “C” in the developer proposal and its overwhelming impact on surrounding villages.

I have received multiple emails from constituents and met with District and County councillors including Cllr Geoff Harvey and Cllr Henry Batchelor as well as Chairs of West Wratting and Great Wilbraham Parish Councils to hear about the status of this application and get further understanding about residents’ concerns.

For a national infrastructure project, the local councils do not have decision-making powers but they are a statutory consultee. I understand that South Cambridgeshire District will submit a response to the consultation which, supported also by the response from Cambridgeshire County Council, will highlight many of the issues that residents have raised.

As many of you have highlighted, there is, of course, a need for more renewable energy, including solar projects, to meet our climate change targets - and, as the National Committee on Climate Change has stated, we are currently off track achieving them.

There is also a need for balance between different values and uses of our land, between renewable energy generation, food production and the restoration of nature.

If there is to be infrastructure in a certain area then the local communities affected need to see that this is happening as part of a joined-up approach for the whole area - not a seeming free for all for developers nor a postcode lottery approach, leaving it to developers to determine the location and scale of energy infrastructure projects.

The Liberal Democrats have long called for a Land Use Framework at national level and I wholeheartedly support that.

The new government has announced that it will be producing a Land Use Framework, something that was also promised but then delayed under the former government. I am pressing for accelerated publication of this Land Use Framework through my different roles in Parliament, including through my scrutiny role as a member of the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC), which operates on a cross-party basis. This framework needs to work hand in hand with the UK government’s recently commissioned Strategic Spatial Energy Plan.

In addition to a strategic approach to land use, it is also imperative that community benefits from any renewable energy infrastructure is clarified. At the moment, this is not clear.

I sit on the Bill Committee for the new GB Energy Bill which is expected to become law by late January 2025.

I have been campaigning both in the House of Commons and through our Spokespeople in the House of Lords for this GB Energy Bill to include mention of community energy and community benefits in order to ensure there are rights and clear guidelines for communities living close by to energy infrastructure projects, so they can best negotiate and realise significant community benefits.

As stressed above, it is essential that these strategic national frameworks - on the most appropriate land uses for different areas and the regime for community benefits - are put in place ahead of final decisions on applications such as Kingsway Solar.

In their absence, it is difficult to support a scheme of such scale with such an overwhelming impact on the local communities.

Thank you to the many of you who will have made you views known by responding to the Kingsway informal consultation. This will be a long process, with the next step being the statutory consultation, and I do urge people to continue to fully engage with this process and to submit your comments at each stage, whether in favour of the proposal or not.