Plan for solar farm on former golf course approved
ReutersPlans to build a new solar farm the size of 15 football pitches on the site of a former contaminated golf course have been backed by councillors.
Halton Council's planning department has approved the construction of a "solar microgrid" at the former St Michael's golf course in Widnes.
More than 7,200 solar panels will be installed, generating about four megawatts of electricity and powering public buildings including the council's headquarters, Lower House Lane depot, DCBL Stadium and the new leisure centre on Moor Lane.
The new 27-acre (11-hectare) complex, north of Ditton Road and south of Speke Road, will more than quadruple the capacity of an adjacent solar farm which opened in 2020.
The Local Democracy Service said the former municipal golf course was closed in 2004 on the advice of the Health Protection Agency.
This followed the discovery of arsenic in the ground and outbreaks of leachate (contaminated liquid) from waste mass.
Plans to reopen the golf course to the public following clean-up work were announced in 2016 but did not come to fruition.
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