Council quit solar talks after shifting on climate

The government granted development consent for a 474-acre solar farm in Kent, even though the county council pulled out of discussions over land use

Kent County Council stopped discussions with a solar power developer after rescinding its climate emergency declaration, documents show.

Evolution Power was in talks with the local authority over rights to use council land for cables connecting a proposed solar farm to the grid.

The government granted development consent for the project on Thursday, even though an agreement had not yet been reached.

The council informed officials in September it had quit discussions because it had revoked the declaration and was concerned about use of farmland "for large solar farm projects".

The local authority wrote it had been in "voluntary negotiations" with Evolution Power over "flood storage and cable drilling" on council land for the Stonestreet Green Solar project, near Ashford.

Kent County Council correspondence dated 24 September told officials it was informing the company it would "cease any further discussion".

Evolution Power told the BBC that "negotiations are ongoing and therefore we do not consider it appropriate to comment at this time".

A council spokesperson confirmed the local authority stopped discussions and a voluntary agreement had not been reached.

David Wimble, the cabinet member for the environment, said the council would "comply with any necessary legislative requirements of the development consent order".

Solar infrastructure should go on "brownfield sites and rooftops, not prime agricultural land" and he was "disappointed" the scheme was approved, the Reform UK councillor said.

The Planning Inspectorate, in its recommendation that ministers approved the development, said that failure to make arrangements "should not be an impediment" to acquiring land rights for grid connection.

The Environment Agency, which is also negotiating with Evolution Power over land rights, said in September it hoped to agree financial terms "within the next three months".

'Resist government plans'

Kent County Council passed a motion, proposed by Reform UK councillors, on 18 September rescinding its declaration of a climate emergency in 2019 and resolving to "be open-minded but sceptical of anthropogenic climate change".

At the same meeting councillors discussed the Reform administration's draft strategic statement, which listed "resist government plans to cover agricultural land in solar farms" as a priority.

The overwhelming consensus among scientists is that human activities are causing climate change, posing serious threats to people and nature.

The year 2024 was the hottest on record and the first to surpass 1.5C (2.7F) of warming, according to the European Copernicus climate service, one of the main global data providers.

The UN's climate body - the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - concluded in 2023 that "human activities, principally through emissions of greenhouse gases, have unequivocally caused global warming".