Labour donor Dale Vince says solar farm approval was not politically influenced
Labour donor Dale Vince says solar farm approval was not politically influenced
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Energy boss Dale Vince has hit back at suggestions that the Government’s recent decision to approve his solar farm in Lincolnshire was politically influenced. Heckington Fen Solar Park, a development owned by Mr Vince’s renewable energy company Ecotricity, was given the green light late last week by ministers.
Mr Vince, who donated £5 million to Labour in the run-up to the general election, told the PA news agency criticism by opponents of the project are “cheap” and “cynical”. The project, a solar park combined with a battery storage site, will provide enough electricity to power as many as 200,000 homes when it is completed.
Suggestions of influence are just cheap, cynical comments. Colin Davie, a Conservative councillor at Lincolnshire County Council, questioned whether Energy Secretary Ed Miliband had “declared the nature of his relationship” with Mr Vince, in comments to the Telegraph newspaper.
Marc Williams, another Lincolnshire councillor, said the decision was “disgraceful” and pointed to Mr Vince’s role as a Labour donor. In response, Mr Vince said the project would create “hundreds of jobs” and that it is the “right thing at the right time” as the Government pushes to decarbonise the power system by 2030.
He added: “Suggestions of influence are just cheap, cynical comments – I’ve spent the last 30 years pushing for green energy in Britain – the economic and security benefits of that make it now unarguable and that’s why we have a Government committed to it, having promised it in their manifesto.”.
