A planned “large scale” battery storage plant covering 3.4ha is moving forward on the edge of York.

The London-based Burlington Property Group has been told by City of York Council it does not need to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment as part of any future planning application for such a development off Murton Way, Osbaldwick.

The site is currently Grade 3 farmland in the Green Belt, which would be used to ‘balance’ renewable energy with demand on the grid over a 40-year period.

A council report said of the scheme: “It would involve a large-scale battery energy storage system including 104 containers with associated infrastructure including a substation, fencing, security cameras, cabling and access tracks. The development will connect to the nearby National Grid substation at Osbaldwick.”

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The report says other battery stores have been approved in the area, including two smaller ones near to the site.

It continued: “The approved battery stores are much smaller than this proposal. Having regard to the scale of the proposal, distances and that already approved it is not considered to have a significant cumulative impact to warrant an EIA. The impact would be localised.”

Furthermore, various other parts of a future planning application would cover matters such as landscape and visual impact, the report also added.