From pylons to solar farms, 2025 is all about the big stuff

From pylons to solar farms, huge infrastructure projects are planned across East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, despite strong local opposition. Environment correspondent Paul Murphy looks at what 2025 could bring.

It is set to be the year of the “big stuff”.

Civil servants call them “nationally significant infrastructure projects”. But like a bellyful of Christmas turkey, it’s a phrase that weighs heavily on the eyelids. So let’s stick with “big stuff”. And… you’re back in the room.

Pylons, solar farms, wind farms, power stations and pipelines. The proposals are all sitting there on the government’s online planning portal, patiently waiting for approval and selection, like doe-eyed rescue dogs in January.

Some big, controversial projects have already been given the green light. But there are more than a dozen solar schemes planned for East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and 2025 could be the year when many of them are given the go-ahead.

Strong opposition to these proposals is likely to continue.

From the gentle foothills of the Yorkshire Wolds to the sweeping fenlands of Lincolnshire, campaigners want to protect local identity, character and culture.

It is a fight to save fields and farms, some of them so ancient they are listed in the Domesday Book.

In December, the prime minster said these “nimbys” and “naysayers” were standing in the way of progress – a remark that has perhaps deepened an already combative mood in communities fighting the panels and pylons.

The message was driven home a little over a week later when Energy Secretary Ed Miliband came to Hull and said he wanted more wind farms on land and was taking away the rights of local councils to put a stop to them.

The “big stuff” is central to the government’s plan to wean us all off polluting oil and gas, to make the UK more energy self-sufficient, more secure and more resilient.

In a country facing the complex challenges of energy security and green energy targets, ministers are suggesting we need to go with the big stuff or go home.

Nationally significant infrastructure projects are already decided by ministers, not by local councils.

As 2024 closes, minsters are indicating that they want to speed the whole process up, especially when it comes to housing.

Adrian Cooke is hoping to continue to enjoy kitesurfing in Bridlington bay in the year ahead.

But he and fellow surfers have warned that the water quality is so poor that “people are getting ill”.

This year, the government introduced its Water Bill to try to tackle the problem of sewage in our seas and rivers.

In 2025, the political and public pressure on water companies to clean up their act is likely to continue.

Bridlington’s South Beach has a big new year’s resolution – to salvage its reputation after failing a bathing water quality assessment for a third year on the trot.

And it’s not just the quality of water that will continue to grab the headlines. It’s the quantity of the stuff.

Flooding is becoming more frequent and extreme. Record-breaking rainfall is affecting food production.

Few places are more important for our food than the low-lying expanses of Lincolnshire, but they are also highly vulnerable to floods.

Many of them are sea-level communities that rely heavily on an elaborate system of drains and defences.

This year, the floods minister exclusively told BBC Look North that “our critical flood defence assets are at their lowest point“.

This stark and sobering admission highlights the scale of the challenge for the months ahead.

There is no doubt that 2025 will deliver further evidence that climate change is not an abstract concept endured by people in distant lands.

It is lapping at our own doorsteps and it is likely to continue to drive the government’s policies on building things such as solar farms and pylon routes.

Such decisions will continue to concern some local authorities, especially Lincolnshire County Council, which has warned that the region will become a “dumping ground” for renewable energy infrastructure.

That’s the “big stuff” to you and me.

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