Tuesday November 4th 2025
Aerial view of a solar farm
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Marie Sharp
A solar farm planned for East Lothian countryside would be the ‘size of a new town’ and take over 20 agricultural fields, a meeting of East Lothian Council was told today.
Councillors voted to object to the proposals for land surrounding the rural community of Oldhamstocks as they questioned claims it was ‘essential infrastructure’.
The solar farm and battery energy storage site, if approved by the Scottish Government Energy Consent Unit (ECU), will cover a site of 180 hectares making it the biggest solar farm in Scotland.
Developers Voltalia UK Ltd came under fire as the plans were presented to the council’s planning committee over what was described as a lack of community consultation and information about their plans, with one elected member describing their collaboration with residents as ‘pitiful’.
The meeting heard from people living in Oldhamstocks who said living under the shadow of the proposals for more than a year had impacted on their health and wellbeing with one saying it felts as if they were being attacked.
She said: “We actually feel assaulted by the scale of this proposal and are already grieving the loss of place.”
Councillors were asked to approve a response prepared by officers for the ECU which objected to the plans on a number of issues from concerns over impact on biodiversity to a lack of detail provided.
The applicants had argued that the development is essential infrastructure which would contribute to national decarbonisation targets and efforts had been made to ensure the amount of ‘prime agricultural land’ used in it was kept to a minimum with just 12 per cent of the site classed in that way.
Officers however said the developers plans had ‘underestimated’ the visual impact of the site on the landscape and surrounding conservation area adding their plans to surround the site with two metre high fencing and security went against the Scottish Outdoor Access Policy.
Residents, some of whom will be living just 50 metres from the new solar farm, also raised concerns about the health and safety of women, in particular, who would go from walking in open countryside to walking through “closed corridors of fencing lined with CCTV”.
The decision on the application will be taken by the ECU with the local authority only able to submit their views as a consultee, however if the Scottish Government agency decides to approve it despite the objections a public enquiry will need to be held.
Councillors unanimously backed the officers recommendation to object to the solar farm. Councillor Donna Collins, who is a farmer, said the suggestion by developers that only a small part of the fields could be considered ‘prime agricultural land’ did not mean the rest was not suitable for food production.
And she expressed frustration at what she said was an assumption that locals living around the site were ‘dumb’.
She said: “They make out the land is unusable and they can’t do anything with it. It is the same as the land I have and I can grow wheat and barley and potatoes in it.”
Councillors Shona McIntosh also raised concern about removing so many fields from potential food production for decades to come as well as pointing out the number of times officers said information was lacking or incorrect in the application.
She said: “It is a real lack of respect for the people who are going to have to live with this. You cannot come along with a proposal of this size and put in so little effort that we have so many mistakes.”
Locals had claimed developers had held the minimum number of public consultations on the proposal and rejected attempts to meet community groups for further talks.
Councillor Colin McGinn told developers: “The collaboration has been pitiful and the communication was the same.”
The committee unanimously agreed to pass objections to the ECU. The biggest solar farm currently under construction in Scotland is at Milltown Airfield, in Moray, and covers a site of 115 hectares.
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