Having spent 12 years working on the SubStations at Necton to help Necton and other affected villages get the community benefit and compensation they need I’m very concerned by this latest proposal.

It appears that the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) have designated - without any local consultation or input - the Swaffham - Dereham - Norwich corridor as an energy infrastructure corridor with no consideration for local government, local planning or community or environmental impact.

By pushing this through as National Infrastructure the Government are attempting to bypass the local planning system and cut local communities out.

The massive Pylon & Cabling infrastructure across Norfolk has massive environmental and agricultural and economic costs and disruption - to a rural county reeling from the cost of living crisis and pandemic. 

⁠Tourism is our No1 industry and this scale of development will hit our Mid Norfolk tourism industry hard.

This area is very productive agricultural land and putting it into concrete solar farms is a huge blow to our agricultural and food sector. This is all part of a broken model of national grid infrastructure management - which sees the Grid and ESO making money from the more infrastructure that is built.  No other country does it like this. 

We should be building an Offshore Interconnector for the S North Sea wind farms - instead of building 10 substations all round the coast - ⁠that’s why I launched the Offshore Grid Campaign now led by Sir Bernard Jenkin

We were told that Norfolk’s contribution to the Green Energy transition would be offshore wind. Now we’re being asked to carry a separate load of solar infrastructure

Of course we need renewables and to embrace the opportunities from the green economy.  But that needs to be part of a bottom-up plan from each County for its contribution, based on rewards and incentives not just a top-down decision by Labour Ministers in London urged on by Green mega corporations and massive subsidies to a few farmers. We need a proper Green Growth Transition Plan for Norfolk.

I have requested an urgent meeting with the developers on this matter, and will keep you updated as soon as I have further news.

I will be doing all I can to make sure the needs of our part of Norfolk are properly addressed - by meeting Ministers, raising it in Parliament and working with local residents, villages and councils.