Gleaston solar farm plans set to be scrutinised at Kendal Town Hall

Plans for a solar farm the size of 115 football pitches are set to go before planning committee next month, according to a councillor.

The proposed solar farm in Gleaston, between Barrow and Ulverston, has been in the works since spring last year.

It would see a 203-acre plot of land south of Riddings Lane filled with solar panels.

The scheme has been controversial with large-scale objection from neighbours but also has a large number of supporters.

A council officer recommended in March that the scheme be refused, saying that although the delivery of renewable energy would bring benefits, they do not outbalance the ‘significant harm’ to the ‘valued landscape character’ of the area.

The planner added that the application had ‘failed to demonstrate’ that there would not be significant harm to adjacent protected landscapes, nor a detrimental impact on neighbours.

But since that recommendation was published the council has not made a decision.

Now Councillor Ben Cooper, for Low Furness ward, which the application site sits in, has given an update on the progress of the application.

Last year, Cllr Cooper ‘called in’ the plans to be heard at planning committee when the time arose – meaning the decision would be heard in a public forum, as opposed to being delegated to an officer, who may approve or deny the application.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the ‘latest indication’ is that it will be going before the strategic planning committee at Kendal Town Hall on July 8 at 10am.

Items set to be heard at planning committees can change at short notice.

In his request to call in the application, Cllr Cooper described it as the largest single development in Low Furness ‘in his lifetime’, adding that the scale of the site was ‘totally unsuitable’ for the local community and environment.

In his newsletter, which had an item on stopping the Gleaston solar farm, he said: “Three-metre high solar panels surrounded by four-metre high security fences, with battery storage containers littered everywhere, will spoil our local area for many years to come.”

But the applicant, Innova, said the development would help address the UK climate emergency, which was declared by the former South Lakeland District Council in 2019.

It added that it would provide ‘energy security’, increasing the country’s production of renewable energy and that there would not be any adverse impacts with ‘limited’ landscape harm being outweighed by the benefits.

At the time of the aforementioned officer’s report, there had been 451 representations with 225 objections, 219 in support and seven comments.

But since its publication, there have been three more objections.

Penelope Mulholland, who currently lives in Penrith, said: “As a future resident of Gleaston, I am extremely concerned by the impact on the community in this quiet village.

“The infrastructure and access is not robust enough to accommodate the additional traffic and industrial activity, both in construction and in future usage.”

Ian Postlethwaite called it a ‘totally inappropriate use of productive farm land’.