£6m solar park plan for land ruined by spoils from M-way build

A FARMER whose fertile pastures were destroyed by spoils from the construction of the M61 motorway more than 45 years ago is behind a plan to build a £6m solar park to return his land to profitability.

David Lomax and renewable energy company AR Partners Ltd have applied for permission to install 20,100 solar panels on 32 acres of farmland at Bent Spur Farm, Kearsley, south of Bolton.

The land has not been used for anything other than grazing for sheep since the M61 was built in the late 1960s when waste from the project was dumped on the land.

Sheep will still be able to graze on the land if Bolton Council’s planniers give the go ahead to application, which has been submitted Oxfordshire-based solar company RPS Group.

Also included in the application are three inverter and transformer buildings and 2.3 metre-high security fencing.

The panels – each 3m high – will supply enough energy to supply 1,041 homes and reduce the amount of CO2 produced, when compared to fossil fuels, by 1,451 tonnes per year.

The development will provide two part-time jobs and 50 construction jobs, with the construction phase expected to last 12 weeks.

Mr Lomax, whose father started running farm in the 1950s and who breeds cattle and sheep with his son Gavin, said the money for scheme was coming from a private investor.

“It’s quite project in terms of size, and similar to some larger solar parks which are springing up in the south,” he said. “There was a golf course there, but that died a slow death, so this was a way to make the land useful again.

“The beauty of the project is that, the sheep will still be able to graze underneath the panels on the land.”

George Hughes of AR Partners said his company were leasing the land off the farm to operate the solar park.

“It is an attractive scheme because it’s not as if the land is fertile for growing crops or anything,” he said.