Summary of Technical Note of Potential Off-Site Water-related Risks from Kingsway Solar Farm and Battery Storage Facility, Cambridge, 23 July 2025, Clive Carpenter (GWP).
The report letter (dated 23 July 2025) is an independent review that assesses potential off‑site water‑related risks from the proposed Kingsway Solar Farm and Battery Storage Facility. It was prepared by GWP Consultants for Richard Buxton Solicitors and is based on the Kingsway’s EIA Scoping Report and the Planning Inspectorate’s scoping opinion along with geological and hydrological data. The review concludes that the current pre‑application documents for the Kingsway Solar Farm and BESS facility do not adequately address off‑site water‑related risks. Key omissions include the lack of rainfall‑run‑off modelling for the large solar‑panel areas, absence of a robust drainage and attenuation strategy (both for storm water and BESS fire‑water), and insufficient assessment of groundwater contamination risk despite the site lying over a principal aquifer and within multiple drinking‑water source‑protection zones.
Because of these deficiencies – and given the high sensitivity of the chalk aquifer and the large population dependent on it – GWP advises that pluvial flood risk and BESS contamination risks cannot be scoped out of the environmental assessment and that the Planning Inspectorate should require detailed hydrological and contamination mitigation measures before allowing the development to proceed.
The following image is not part of the report, but was prepared by West Wratting Parish Council.
Simon Chandler
West Wratting Parish Council
August 2025