A council’s mission to make the Fens a protected area has been backed by a neighbouring authority.
In early October, South Holland District Council backed the motion, in a bid to ensure the area’s rich agricultural and horticultural industries can be saved as more and more farmland is being handed over to energy projects.
And now support has come from across the county border in the shape of Fenland District Council.
Coun Laura Eldridge
Coun Laura Eldridge – who represents the Saints ward – put forward the original motion after seeing a number of huge developments planned for her patch.
These include the Meridian Solar Farm – which will include parcels of land across Cowbit, Whaplode Drove and Holbeach Drove – and a 350-acre development at Sutton St Edmund, plus the recently-proposed 100-acre solar project at Fendyke Farm Sutton St James.
“With us being the bread basket of the country, a predominantly agricultural, horticultural area, and with having the best agricultural land in the country, I think it’s really important that we protect that moving forward,” she told LincsOnline.
“It’s important to protect everything we’ve got. The population is increasing and we need to ensure we can support our own population as opposed to being held hostage to food being imported from abroad.”
“This isn’t NIMBYism, it’s about our heritage and protecting our area and employment for the future.
“We’ve got such a huge employment in agriculture and horticulture that if the land gets taken away the jobs go as well.”
The Fens produce 22% of England’s food
According to the UK Food Security report, the Fens produce 22% of England’s crop output and 35% of its vegetable production.
Some landowners have contacted LincsOnline to say the financial security of decades-long leases on their land are attractive in the current farming climate, but many councilors, farmers and residents fear huge projects such as the National Grid’s £1.07 billion plans to lay 420 pylons across an 87-mile stretch between Grimsby and Walpole in Norfolk, numerous solar farm projects and the proposed Lincolnshire Reservoir, will remove valuable land.
Indeed, SHDC leader Nick Worth told LincsOnline we should prioritise food over energy.
“At the end of the day we should be more self sufficient, not importing as much as we do,” he said.
“You can all keep warm if you have to, but if you don’t have anything to eat then you’re in trouble.”
Nick Worth in the leader’s office at South Holland District Council
Speaking at Fenland’s full council last week, Coun Brenda Barber – who put forward the motion to preserve the Fenland landscape as a critical food producing area – said ‘there is a very real threat to the future of our farms and homegrown produce’.
“Fenland is currently faced with the threat of multiple National Significant Infrastructure Projects which if granted would reduce huge swathes of land from crop production,” she told the chamber.
“Whilst these projects are described as temporary in nature, solar farms with their 40-year presence are a significant part of anyone’s lifetime.
“Pylons have a presence of approximately 80 years but their presence is likely to be indefinite, along with that of associated substations.
Coun Brenda Barber
“Agricultural land in Fenland is classed as best and most versatile land in the country, something that should not be understated.”
Coun Steve Tierney said that ‘Government’s have gone completely mad’.
“The only thing that seems to matter to them is controlling the weather,” he added. “This nebulous threat of climate change.”
“I do want to say that food security is absolutely vital and this is a choice. There are lots of forms of energy but solar and wind – the two everybody seems to love at the minute – they cost us.
Coun Steve Tierney
“We don’t think about the concrete that needs to be laid, the turbines, areas of land that are eaten up by solar panels, the cost of subsidies that are so well hidden as to make these forms of energy seem affordable when actually they are not.
“Let’s not starve ourselves and our future generations by making stupid decisions now.”The motion was carried unanimously.