Second scheme for solar farm near Beverley raises fears on construction traffic in village

Developers Boom Power Ltd want to build the 49.9MW farm on 232 acres of arable land at Kenley House Farm at Wawne.

The site is less than a mile from Wawne – a village with a population of around 1,000 people – and a mile from Beverley.

Concerns over how construction traffic – including HGVs up to 16.5metres long – will travel down a narrow country lane to the site, as well as navigating the road through the village and a bridge on Sutton Road over the Croft Drain, have been raised.

The developers are expecting up to six round trips by large vehicles per day over a 25 week-period when deliveries are being made to the site.

They are expected to come via the A1079 from the west, onto John Newton Way and north on Wawne Road through the village and along Ferry Road to Kenley House Farm.

Traffic through the village will be restricted from 9am to 3pm on weekdays to avoid conflict with the primary school.

Documents submitted to the council state: “The applicant has identified no viable alternatives in this case and is confident that the best construction traffic route has been chosen.”

Councillor Jacob Birch said: "Those who know about it are concerned. There will be others that don't know about the impact it could have. The developers should do an open event to showcase the plans.

"In theory I support solar farms - but it is a solar farm potentially in the wrong place, with incorrect or insufficient access to support the needs of residents."

The plans follows a recent application for a 40MW farm with 40MW battery storage on 185 acres of agricultural land next to the village of Tickton - five miles away from Wawne and a mile-and-a-half from Beverley - by another developer.

Councillor Birch said there was a third set of plans - as yet it hasn't gone into planning - for a site several times the size of the village closer to Bransholme and another concern was around the loss of agricultural land

The development at Wawne is expected to export enough electricity for around 16,000 homes to the National Grid over a 40-year period.

It will involve installing solar panels in rows nine metres apart, standing to either a height of 2.46 metres or 3.86 metres so they are high enough in case of flooding.

The scheme includes nine transformer stations inside containers which are used to convert low voltage output from the inverters to high voltage suitable for feeding into the substations.

The site will be fenced and there will be CCTV cameras for 24-hour surveillance. Developers say such schemes are vital for the UK to meet its legally binding commitment to a net zero target.