It’s possible we’ve already played our part
By Cllr Julia Ewart, County Councillor for Saxmundham & District
There are few people who would argue against cleaner energy, greater energy security or reducing our reliance on imported fuels. Most of us want a cleaner environment for future generations and recognise that Britain must continue to modernise its energy infrastructure. The question is not whether renewable energy has a role to play. The question is whether Suffolk should continue to shoulder an ever-growing share of the burden.
As someone who has spent years dealing with planning applications, both as a district councillor and as former Vice-Chair of East Suffolk Council’s Northern Area Planning Committee, I have watched with increasing concern as large swathes of our countryside have become viewed not as landscapes, communities and productive farmland, but as development opportunities.
At some point, we need to ask a simple question. Have we already played our part?
Suffolk has been remarkably accommodating. We are due, controversially, to accept substations, converter stations, Nuclear on a huge scale, transmission infrastructure, battery storage facilities and countless associated developments. Individually, each project arrives with its own justification. Collectively, they are changing the very character of the county.
For those living in Westminster, Whitehall or even Ipswich, a solar farm may appear as little more than a coloured rectangle on a planning map. For those living next to one, it is something entirely different. It is the loss of open countryside. It is miles of fencing and security infrastructure. It is construction traffic on roads never designed to accommodate it. It is industrialisation arriving in places that have remained fundamentally rural for centuries.
What troubles me most is that much of the debate has become strangely one-dimensional. We are repeatedly told what the benefits are. We hear far less about the costs.
Those costs are not simply financial. They are environmental. They are cultural. They are social. They are often effectively permanent for a generation.
Suffolk possesses some of the most treasured landscapes in England. Our historic villages, medieval churches, listed farmsteads and open countryside are not accidental features. They are the product of centuries of stewardship by generations who understood that some things, once lost, cannot easily be recreated.
The setting of a listed building matters. The view across a rural valley matters. The character of a village matters. The tranquillity of the countryside matters. Yet increasingly these considerations appear secondary to development targets set elsewhere.
There is also an uncomfortable contradiction at the heart of many solar proposals. At a time when food security is becoming an increasingly important national issue, productive agricultural land is being removed from food production for decades at a time. As recent world events have demonstrated, we cannot assume that food will always arrive from somewhere else. Britain needs productive farmland. Suffolk, as one of the country’s most important agricultural counties, has a responsibility not just to generate energy but to help feed the nation.
The balance feels increasingly wrong.
There are also legitimate concerns regarding the rapid expansion of Battery Energy Storage Systems that frequently accompany solar developments. Whilst supporters emphasise safety improvements, communities are entitled to ask difficult questions about fire risks, emergency response arrangements and environmental consequences should an incident occur. These concerns are not irrational. They are entirely reasonable.
What is perhaps most striking is how often local people feel ignored. Across Suffolk, parish councils, residents’ groups and community organisations devote countless hours to understanding applications, reviewing technical documents and participating in consultations. Too often they come away with the impression that the decision was effectively made before they entered the room. Whether that perception is fair or not, it is becoming widespread. And that should concern anyone who values public confidence in the planning system.
Politically, the landscape may also be changing. For much of the last decade, energy policy has been driven by an assumption that bigger, faster and more extensive deployment was always preferable. That consensus appears increasingly fragile. With the prospect of a future Prime Minister less inclined towards the eco-evangelism that has characterised Ed Miliband’s approach to energy policy, there is an opportunity to have a more mature conversation.
Not a conversation about abandoning environmental responsibility. Not a conversation about stopping renewable energy. A conversation about balance. A conversation about common sense. A conversation about whether industrialising some of England’s finest countryside is really the only way forward.
There are alternatives. Commercial rooftops. Warehouse developments. Industrial estates. Brownfield land. Public sector buildings. All offer opportunities that deserve far greater attention than they currently receive.
Most importantly, there is a need to recognise that environmental protection is about more than carbon calculations. It is also about protecting landscapes, habitats, heritage and the places people call home. Those things matter too.
Suffolk has always done its bit. Our communities have accepted development after development in pursuit of national objectives. We have contributed more than most counties and asked for very little in return.
Perhaps the time has come to ask whether enough is enough.
The future of solar in Suffolk should not be decided solely by targets, spreadsheets or distant policy ambitions. It should be decided by asking what sort of county we want to leave to the next generation.
And from where I stand, that is a debate worth having.
