Consultation - Beacon Fen Energy Park

The statutory consultation for Beacon Fen Energy Park opened on 22 January 2024 and ran for six weeks.

Low Carbon has consulted on proposals to build a new solar and battery storage park on land to the east of Sleaford, Lincolnshire. Beacon Fen Energy Park’s solar array is proposed to the north of the village of Heckington, while a cable route corridor is proposed south-east of the solar array connecting to Bicker Fen substation.

The statutory consultation presented refined proposals for the project, including biodiversity enhancement areas and a proposed bespoke access road to reduce the impact on local roads during construction. It also outlined what changes have been made since early (non-statutory) consultation in May/June 2023.

We are now collecting and analysing your feedback on the proposals, which will help us refine our plans before submitting our DCO application to the Planning Inspectorate.

Separately, we identified minor additional areas of land, which may be required to facilitate access to the project site. We wrote directly to those parties affected to advise on the detail. The inclusion of these additional areas of land does not impact on any of the underlying information included in the statutory consultation. We therefore undertook a targeted consultation in relation to these areas, which concluded in March 2024. We are now collecting and analysing any further feedback from the relevant parties.

Our Time Table

Location	Event Type	When	Address
Bicker Village Hall	Drop-in exhibition	Friday, January 26, 1.30pm – 7.30pm	Bicker Village Hall, Cemetery Road, Bicker, PE20 3BT
Ewerby Reading Rooms	Drop-in exhibition	Saturday, January 27, 10am – 4pm	Ewerby Reading Rooms, 75 Main Street, Ewerby, NG34 9PJ
Online	Webinar 1	Monday, January 29, 6.30pm – 8pm	To register, please email info@beaconfenenergypark.co.uk with the event you wish to join
South Kyme Coronation Hall	Drop-in exhibition	Wednesday, February 21, 10am – 4pm	South Kyme Coronation Hall, High Street, South Kyme, LN4 4AD
Heckington Village Hall	Drop-in exhibition	Thursday, February 22, 2pm – 8pm	Heckington Village Hall, 9-11 High Street, NG34 9RA
Online	Webinar 2	Thursday, February 29, 6.30pm – 8pm	To register, please email info@beaconfenenergypark.co.uk with the event you wish to join

We held four in-person events and two webinars during our statutory consultation. You can see our webinars below. Information available at the in-person events can also be read online here.

Preliminary Environmental Impact Report

As part of the consultation, communities and stakeholders were able to read and have their say on the project’s Preliminary Environmental Impact Report (PEIR). Hard copies were available at all in-person events, while a digital copy is available to download here.

Biodiversity

Delivering Beacon Fen Energy Park allows Low Carbon to look at creating new and enhancing existing habitats.

In developing our proposals, a range of design and operational measures have been considered to minimise environmental effects. These include, but are not limited to;

The creation of buffer zones around areas of woodland, hedgerows, ditches and badger setts
Minimisation of lighting, with no floodlighting at night
Creation of new habitats

Early (Non-statutory) Consultation

Our early (non-statutory) consultation phase closed on Sunday 18 June 2023.

During the consultation we:

Held three in-person consultation events and two online webinars
Met with a number of local parish/town councils to brief them on the proposed project
Held meetings with county and district councillors
Visited many near neighbours to the proposed site to discuss the project with them

The feedback received from stakeholders is vital in informing the developing proposals for Beacon Fen Energy Park. Thanks to all of the local residents who provided their input. You can view a summary of our early (non-statutory) consultation feedback in our latest newsletter here.

We held three in-person events at key local sites throughout the five-week consultation. This enabled us to present our latest plans, while also giving the local community the opportunity to speak directly to the team and ask any questions. A further two webinars were also organised, giving those people who were unable to attend an event, but who wanted to find out more, further chances to do so. The webinars were recorded and can be seen below.

Separately, our Environmental Impact Assessment scoping request was submitted to the Planning Inspectorate, which returned a Scoping Opinion on 26 May 2023. You can view the Scoping Opinion here.

Following the initial early (non-statutory) consultation and the community and stakeholder feedback received, we withdrew Beacon Fen South from our Development Consent Order application in July 2023. We will be progressing with solar and battery storage development at Beacon Fen North –now to be called Beacon Fen Energy Park. You can read more about this decision here.

In November 2023, we published our SoCC, outlining how we plan to engage with stakeholders and local communities during our statutory consultation. You can download this document here.