Liverpool John Lennon Airport will appeal Halton Council's decision to reject its proposal to build a solar farm near Hale Village.
In January, the airport applied to Halton Borough Council for a lawful development certificate to install the energy site on more than 13 acres of land close to Hale Village. The solar farm is central to Liverpool Airport 's sustainability plans, who hope for it to be a clean source of 25% of its energy as it works to decarbonise by 2040.
The airport planned to build the farm on land bounded by Dungeon Lane, Hale Road and Bailey's Lane on the approach into the village. It would consist of photo voltaic panels mounted on steel frames, reaching heights of 2.7m. The airport said the panels would be below the height of the airport perimeter fence with associated landscaping.
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Before Halton Council made a decision, an airport spokesperson told the ECHO that the solar farm: "will help to decarbonise the airport’s electricity supplies and enable the airport to operate in a greener, more sustainable way, as part of our plans to become net zero by 2040, whilst continuing to deliver a host of economic benefits for the region".
Chair of Hale Parish Council, Councillor Luke Trevaskis was opposed to the development, saying that the development would "sterilise" green space near to the River Mersey, restrict views and impact the open countryside. Halton Council refused the plans on June 29, stating that the airport did not provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the site for the solar farm formed part of its operational land at the date of application.
Stressing its belief that the solar farm will offer significant environmental benefits to the region, Liverpool Airport told the ECHO it plans to appeal the decision.
A spokesperson said: "We are naturally very disappointed with Halton Council’ s decision to reject our application to construct the planned solar farm on the Airport's land. We will subsequently be appealing this judgement as we believe that this scheme will deliver tremendous environmental benefits in the way we run our business and is a vital part of the Airport’s plans to decarbonise by 2040 and of course it is an opportunity to implement a scheme that will enable the Airport to operate in a greener, more sustainable way, and play an important role in the City Region's environmental aspirations to be a zero carbon region.”
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