Romney Marsh Solar Farms: Full Council to Decide Next Step
shepwayvox
Folkestone & Hythe councillors are being asked to give senior officers faster powers to respond to three giant solar schemes on Romney Marsh — but the petition that started the row is not being recommended for another Full Council debate.
The issue returns to Full Council on Wednesday, 24 June, when members will consider the latest report on the proposed Romney Marsh solar developments. The report asks councillors to note the council’s current position, confirm that formal responses will be handled through its planning and regulatory role, and delegate authority to senior officers to submit key NSIP documents, evidence and Development Consent Order responses as the schemes move through the national process.
There are three major proposals.
South Kent Energy Park, promoted by Low Carbon, is planned on land either side of the A250 near Old Romney and is currently described as a scheme of about 500MW. Shepway Energy Park, promoted by SSE Renewables, would sit north and east of Newchurch and is put at about 200MW. South Brooks Solar Farm, promoted by EDF Power Solutions and PS Renewables, is proposed around Lydd and is also described as about 500MW.
Because of their scale, these schemes won’t be decided by Folkestone & Hythe District Council as ordinary local planning applications. They are expected to go through the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project process, where the Planning Inspectorate examines the proposals and the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero makes the final decision.
That’s the uncomfortable bit for local democracy.
Residents can object. Parish councils can object. District councillors can raise serious concerns. But FHDC doesn’t get the final yes or no. Its formal role is to submit evidence, Local Impact Reports, Relevant Representations and Statements of Common Ground. Those documents can matter, especially if they are forensic and well evidenced, but the decision itself sits nationally.
The route back to Full Council began last autumn, when the petition “Stop industrial-scale solar sprawl on Romney Marsh” was discussed on 1 October 2025. It attracted 414 signatures and asked the council to oppose oversized solar and battery storage NSIP schemes on Romney Marsh’s prime agricultural crop-producing land.
The petitioners raised concerns about the loss of high-value farmland, farming jobs and skills, rural character, ecology, the local economy, fire risk, historic churches and views from the Kent Downs National Landscape.
Full Council didn’t vote then to oppose the schemes outright. Instead, it sent the petition to Overview and Scrutiny. A special meeting followed on 26 February, where councillors examined the NSIP process, the council’s host-authority role, national planning policy, possible community benefits and the position of the three schemes.
The concerns raised at scrutiny were wide-ranging and serious. Members questioned the scale of the proposals, the impact on ecology, landscape, tourism, businesses, transport, agricultural land, construction traffic, flood risk, hydrology, water storage, runoff, battery fire safety and delayed grid connections. They also asked whether land could truly be restored after schemes operating for 40 to 60 years.
The key word in the report is “cumulative”.
One solar farm is one argument. Three major solar and battery schemes across the Marsh is something else entirely. Officers say they will keep raising cumulative impacts in the council’s Local Impact Reports, Relevant Representations and Statements of Common Ground, and will urge the Planning Inspectorate to examine the schemes together where their effects overlap.
That is likely to be central to the Marsh argument. Residents are not only asking what one promoter wants to build on one parcel of land. They are asking what happens when several large schemes arrive across the same landscape, with the same roads, drainage systems, farming economy, wildlife corridors and communities carrying the combined weight.
There is also a harder political point in the report. Full Council is being asked to agree that, because of the proposed next steps, the matters raised in the petition won’t need further consideration at another Council meeting. The petition has forced scrutiny, produced a report and led to proposed procedural action, but councillors are not being asked to keep bringing the petition itself back to Full Council.
The council is also being asked to start work on a district-wide Community Benefits Policy for large-scale energy and infrastructure schemes. That doesn’t mean FHDC supports the solar farms. It means that if one or more schemes are approved nationally, the council wants a clearer local framework for mitigation, community benefit and transparency. Any future national rules would take precedence, but officers say a local policy could give communities and promoters a more consistent starting point.
South Brooks is the most active of the three. Its second statutory pre-application consultation began on 28 May and runs until 9 July 2026, with exhibitions in Lydd, Greatstone, New Romney and Camber, plus webinars on water resources, transport, landscape, battery safety, soils and ecology. The promoters say they have reduced the developable area by 20%, increased land for ecology and landscaping by 25%, and included a 43-hectare biodiversity area next to RSPB Dungeness.
The Shepway Vox Team has already reported that South Brooks sits inside a wider Marsh argument about drainage, farming, consultation and public trust. The question is not only whether the plans have changed. It is whether residents are being given a real chance to shape what happens, or are simply being asked to make a nationally driven proposal look more acceptable.
South Kent Energy Park has also started moving again after a pause linked to grid-connection discussions. Environmental surveys are continuing, and a Scoping Report was submitted to the Planning Inspectorate on 5 June. The latest timetable points to a second consultation in early 2027, submission in summer 2027, examination in spring 2028 and a Secretary of State decision in early 2029.
Shepway Energy Park appears to be moving more slowly, with its website still referring to feedback from the first phase of engagement and further community work to come.
The Marsh isn’t an empty map waiting for panels. It is farmland, drainage, churches, villages, views, wildlife, businesses and memory. Renewable energy is necessary. So is honesty about where it lands, who profits, who carries the risk, and whether residents are being asked to influence a decision or simply decorate one already travelling down the national infrastructure track.
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