Councillors approve Ninfield battery facility
Wealden councillors have approved the plans
Plans to create an energy storage facility near Ninfield have been given the go ahead by Wealden councillors.
On Thursday (September 18), Wealden District Council’s Majors Planning Committee approved an application seeking permission to erect a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) on land associated with Moor Hall Farm, which is accessed via the B2095.
The proposals, from Balance Power Projects Ltd, had seen objections raised by Ninfield Parish Council and a small number of neighbouring residents. These objections also raise concerns around fire safety, light pollution and highway safety.
Some of these concerns were shared by ward councillor Mark Fairweather (Lib Dem), who had called in the application for debate on the grounds the facility would harm the appearance of an area of “unspoilt and remote countryside”.
Speaking during the meeting, Cllr Fairweather said: “This is purely about location. Normally, I would be supportive in principle of these types of application, but what it reveals here is policy conflicts that members here need to resolve.
“This application is contrary to Wealden, parish and national planning policy considerations.”
However, Cllr Paul Coleshill, the ward’s other representative, said: “There is a very solid planning objection to this and that is the Ninfield Neighbourhood Plan. That is on one side.
“On the other side, however, I think we have to look at the need for balancing the grid. This is something which is specified in national terms — this is a national piece of infrastructure — and I think when you consider the climate we’ve all be living through it is perfectly obvious that we need to do something to mitigate the disaster that we can see.”
Cllr Coleshill added: “I certainly think if we are going to place in the countryside this large battery of batteries, this is a very good location, because this is in a dell. It is actually not particularly visible from most points.”
During debate, committee members grilled officers on details of the scheme’s fire safety arrangements, its impact on the area and the overall need for such a facility given similar schemes nearby.
Council planning officers had acknowledged the development would result in some “localised landscape harm”, loss of high quality agricultural land and “less than substantial harm” to the setting of a nearby listed building.
But they had also concluded these harms would be outweighed by the benefits of the scheme, particularly in terms of a national push to bring such facilities online.
Officers also told councillors how the facility would not be expected to result in any harm to nearby areas of ancient woodland, nor local ecology more broadly. They also say the scheme would not result in any harm to residential amenity in terms of noise, light or air pollution.
They add further details of fire and highway safety would be secured through conditions prior to development beginning.
While some councillors opposed the plans, the majority of the committee were ultimately supportive of the officers’ recommendation, so opted to grant planning permission, subject to conditions and a legal agreement.
The facility will be expected to have a storage capacity of up to 99 megawatts (MW).
It would be expected to comprise 108 individual modular battery units, arranged in 27 blocks of four. It is expected these batteries would be accompanied by associated infrastructure, including transformers and a power substation.
The rest of the facility would also be expected to include CCTV cameras and fencing (for security and acoustic reasons), as well as control and storage buildings.