Local plan scoping consultation

The draft Local Plan contains an important inconsistency that should be addressed before adoption.
Paragraph 5.116 promotes renewable and low-carbon energy generation, including larger renewable energy schemes. This objective is understandable and reflects national policy on decarbonisation.
However, paragraphs 5.96–5.103 place equal emphasis on protecting and enhancing Cheshire East's natural environment, recognising the intrinsic value of its countryside, landscapes, biodiversity, geological features, soils, trees, hedgerows and other natural assets. These paragraphs also acknowledge the strong public support for protecting these assets and recognise that development should take full account of its environmental impacts.
The Plan currently fails to explain how these two objectives should be balanced where they conflict.
Large-scale solar farms and associated battery storage are industrial developments that can permanently transform open countryside, remove productive agricultural land from food production, fragment habitats, alter landscape character and erode the rural setting that these policies seek to conserve. Without a clear policy hierarchy, the promotion of renewable energy risks undermining the environmental protections set out elsewhere in the Plan.
The inconsistency is particularly apparent in paragraph 5.98, which identifies soils as an environmental asset deserving protection, yet paragraph 5.116 makes no reference to safeguarding Best and Most Versatile (Grades 1, 2 and 3a) agricultural land. High-quality agricultural soil is itself a form of natural capital. It provides food security, stores carbon, supports biodiversity and contributes to the long-term resilience of the rural economy. Once such land is industrialised for decades, it cannot simply be replaced elsewhere.
The Local Plan should therefore make it explicit that renewable energy development must first prioritise previously developed land, brownfield sites, commercial and industrial rooftops, car parks and other built environments before greenfield land is considered. Where greenfield sites are proposed, there should be a clear sequential approach that avoids Best and Most Versatile agricultural land and other environmentally sensitive locations wherever reasonably possible.
The Plan should also state explicitly that proposals resulting in significant harm to valued landscapes, Best and Most Versatile agricultural land, biodiversity, ancient woodland, hedgerows, peat, soils or the wider natural environment will not be supported simply because they contribute to renewable energy generation. Renewable energy schemes should be expected to demonstrate that no less harmful and reasonably available alternatives exist.
The transition to net zero is seen by some to be desirable. However, it should not come at the unnecessary expense of the very natural assets that the Local Plan seeks to protect. Climate action and environmental protection should be complementary objectives. The Local Plan should provide a clear policy framework that ensures renewable energy development is delivered in the right places, while safeguarding Cheshire East's landscapes, biodiversity, food-producing land and natural capital for future generations.