TL;DR

More than 400 people came to a parish council meeting at Tilney St Lawrence on Monday 2 November to object to the Longmarsh Green Energy project, the BBC reports. The Norfolk scheme would pair one of the UK’s largest data centres with solar farms across 4,695 acres. In our view, the argument here is about food as much as power, which the government’s recent data centre offer does not obviously address.

The hall was full, and some locals followed from the car park. The developer, LGE, was invited but did not attend, saying instead that it was working on planting and screening for those living closest and that feedback had been helpful. We reported the plan when it emerged in October.

Dinner or data

The land is the core complaint. Natural England rates the land grade one, meaning “excellent quality”, and neighbouring farmer James Kitchen told the BBC his silt soil held up yields through this year’s drought. Campaigner Dr Martin Little, of the Stop Longmarsh Energy group, put it plainly: “Is it dinner or data?” He says objectors accept data centres and solar in principle but want them smaller and on brownfield land.

Local MP Terry Jermy, a Labour member, said “we cannot have improving energy security but worsening food security”. He plans to press for solar farms to be barred from farmland graded two or above, pointing the argument towards national policy rather than this one site.

The decision sits in Whitehall

Its size puts the scheme in the nationally significant infrastructure regime, which takes the decision away from the local council and gives it to ministers. Consultation runs until 26 November. LGE is due to apply by April 2027, the Planning Inspectorate could then take six months over its examination, and a decision could come by July 2028.

The meeting comes days after the Budget’s Data Centre Covenant, under which operators that invest locally, protect water supplies and create jobs get the best grid connections. In our view, community benefits and water pledges do not answer a claim about losing the best farmland. Scotland’s innovation minister was defending his own planning system against data centre objections on 3 November.

For developers, the lesson is about site selection as well as engagement. A scheme of this size can expect its land grade to be read closely, whatever else it offers.