Save Rural East Kent

Aim

We need YOUR help to fund expert reports to save 122.8 hectares of prime arable land - protect our countryside and food security.

Urgent Appeal: Fund Expert Reports to Stop Application DOV/25/00709 - Solar Farm and Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) - 122.8 Hectares of Land Between Elvington, Tilmanstone, Eastry and Nonington.

Dover District Council has deferred the decision on this proposed solar farm and Battery Energy Storage System (BESS).

We have a crucial window to protect our community —but we must act now.

We need to support Dover District Council Planning Committee to refuse this application.  Under planning law, they cannot rely on general objections and need to act in line with the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). 

We need to provide accredited, independent expert reports that prove material harm and legal reasons, to support refusal of this application.

We are raising £10,000 to hire a team of three specialist consultants to build an unassailable case for refusal.

What Your Donation Funds: A 3-Front Technical Defence:

To defeat the developer's application, our £10k fundraising campaign will commission three independent desktop reviews:

BESS Fire Safety & Hydrology Expert

The Flaw: The applicant assumes that a BESS thermal runaway fire can be controlled in 2 hours using 228,000 litres of water, whereas utility BESS fires burn for 12 to 72 hours.

The Impact: Once the bund overflows, over 1,000,000 litres of toxic firewater (containing hydrofluoric acid and heavy metals) risks leaching into local groundwater and soil.  This groundwater aquifer supplies local drinking water, so this poses a massive pollution risk and consequential risk to human health.

Highways & Transport Consultant

A256 Junction Hazard: Oversized HGVs exiting or turning near Venson Farm risk getting stuck or tailing back onto the A256 trunk road, creating a severe high-speed collision risk for incoming traffic.

Single-Track Access Lane: Construction traffic must navigate a long single-track lane with no passing places. Heavy vehicles will destroy road verges, cause severe local disruption, and risk blocking access for emergency service vehicles.

Landscape & Visual Impact (LVIA) Consultant

The Flaw: Weak landscape screening plans that fail to mitigate the industrial scale solar farm and battery enclosures, transformers, and perimeter fencing.

The Impact: Establishing unacceptable harm to local countryside character and breaches of Dover District Council's landscape policies.

How You Can Help

To get these reports onto the public planning register before the deferment deadline, we must raise £10,000 within 14 days.

Donate: Whether £20, £100, or £500, every contribution directly pays for accredited engineering and planning expertise.

Share: Forward this campaign to neighbours, parish councils, and community groups across East Kent - so many are impacted by this proposed industrialisation of our countryside - Save Rural East Kent!

Help us give our councillors the technical ammunition they need to vote REFUSAL.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 11th October 2026 at 7:46pm