Issue - meetings

Meeting: 26/05/2021 - Planning Committee (Item 6)

6 142117 - Old Airfield, Reepham Road pdf icon PDF 82 KB

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Minutes:

The Chairman introduced the first application of the evening, number 142117 for construction and operation of a solar photovoltaic farm, including fencing, internal service tracks, inverters, transformer stations, cabling, CCTV, landscaping, substations and ancillary cabins at The Old Airfield Reepham Road Fiskerton Lincoln.

 

Note:              The Chairman declared that he had been present at a meeting of the Parish Council when the developer had made a presentation. He confirmed he had had no input and remained impartial.

 

The Committee heard from the Principal Development Management Officer with updates to the report. He read aloud the following response from Public Protection:

 

“The contaminated land preliminary appraisal report supplied and associated to 142117 advises in section 6 (Conclusions and Recommendations) that there is potential for localised contaminants to be present across the site which may pose a risk (albeit low) to construction/maintenance workers. In section 7 (Further Works) recommendations are made to investigate this potential risk further during works to identify suitable foundation solutions with sampling and testing of any made ground found in locations likely to be disturbed by groundworks etc.

 

In view of the above no works, other than the recommended further investigation works, ought to be permitted until the recommendations within the preliminary appraisal report are undertaken and a suitable report to determine if any further action or mitigation is required has been submitted and approved by LPA.”

 

Additionally, the Principal Development Management Officersuggested an additional condition to be numbered as 5 with subsequent conditions renumbered accordingly, as well as additional words to be added to condition 3. These amendments were read aloud for Members’ understanding.

 

The Chairman explained there were two registered speakers for the item, he welcomed the first speaker, Mr Cook, Agent for the Applicant, to the meeting and invited him to makae his statement.

 

Mr Cook made the following statement to the Committee.

 

“It seems that every day, there is a news report, or scientific evidence, and ultimately a warning in the media about the potentially devastating consequences our planet will face through climate change. In May, 2019, UK Parliament declared a climate emergency, and since then there has been a clear steer and policy direction to reduce or halt, climate change. Central to this is the target to be net zero by 2050, meaning that there is an equal balance between carbon emissions, capture and offsetting. This will affect people's lives. For example, in the way we make commodities in factories, how we travel, and how the energy we all use is generated. The requirement to achieve Net Zero is also central to decision making at a local level. In March this year, the Central Lincolnshire area made a commitment to start the review process of the local plan, and I'm quoting from the Central Lincolnshire website, that “the review process has begun to do more to reduce carbon emissions and to demonstrably assist Central Lincolnshire and becoming a carbon Net Zero sub region, as soon as it is practically possible”. Whilst Lincoln  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6