Burnley Council's refusal of battery storage plan to be appealed

Energi Generation wants to build the 99.9-megawatt facility on the former open-cast coal mine site north of the A6068 in Padiham, near Dean Brook.

But Burnley Council's development control committee voted to reject its application because of its impact on protected "Green Belt" countryside after objections from nine residents and Ribble Valley Council.

A planning officer's report said: "The proposal would introduce a large and conspicuous expanse of industrial plant that would appear strikingly at odds with the openness and rural character of the countryside."

A spokesman for Lancashire-based Energi Generation said after Thursday's meeting: "We will be appealing this decision.

"Energi Generation are extremely disappointed with the council’s refusal of the battery storage planning application at Padiham.

"The council have ignored the substantial benefits of this scheme and have demonstrated a troubling pattern of limited cooperation and inadequate communication throughout the process.

"The council have also chosen to ignore Labour's new flagship Clean Power 2030 report calling for a near five-fold increase in battery storage despite the opportunity this project offers, in particular as this project does not need to wait 10 to 13 years as many other schemes do for National Grid network upgrades before it can become operational.

"It is particularly notable no statutory consultees raised objections to the application and only nine local objections were raised which bizarrely were not shared with Energi until the council announced their intention to refuse the scheme.

"This means the reasons for refusal were based solely on the subjective conclusions of the case officers without external technical support for their stance.

"We further consider that the council in their decision-making process did not give any reasonable consideration of the number of battery storage planning appeals being granted in Green Belt locations across the country despite Energi providing countless examples.

"The very detailed site selection report carried out for this site clearly demonstrates the suitability of this site and the lack of alternative sites within a viable radius of the local substations and wider grid network.

"It is clear from the officer's report that the council have failed to give full and proper consideration of the benefits of this scheme with regards to its location within the Green Belt.

"Furthermore, they also wholly ignored the fact that the site of the proposed BESS project is a former open cast coal mine.

"For all of the above concerns and more over the planning authority's handling of this application we will be submitting a planning appeal to the Planning Inspectorate."