Lighthouse Development Consulting

As we step into 2025, we are thrilled to announce the promotion of Steffan Baker MRTPI to the role of Associate. Steffan has demonstrated exceptional dedication, hard work, and leadership, making his promotion very well-deserved. With an exciting portfolio of work under instruction, we are confident that Steffan will excel in his new role and will contribute to the success of the team this year. Happy New Year and here's to a prosperous 2025! 🎉 #Promotion #NewYear2025 #Lighthouse

The Lighthouse Development Consulting team (minus Kate Cantwell who had the flu unfortunately) scrubbing up well for the national awards in London on Tuesday evening. A thoroughly enjoyable evening and a great achievement to make it to the finals for best Small Consultancy and Planning Excellence for the Natural Environment. We didn't quite go all the way this year, but we're proud of our achievements for 2024. Excellence in what we do is one of our core values, so it means a huge amount to us all to be recognised for Planning Excellence on the national stage. #rtpiawards

The Lighthouse Development Consulting team (minus Kate Cantwell who had the flu unfortunately) scrubbing up well for the national awards in London on Tuesday evening. A thoroughly enjoyable evening and a great achievement to make it to the finals for best Small Consultancy and Planning Excellence for the Natural Environment. We didn't quite go all the way this year, but we're proud of our achievements for 2024. Excellence in what we do is one of our core values, so it means a huge amount to us all to be recognised for Planning Excellence on the national stage. #rtpiawards

Lighthouse Development Consulting are really looking forward to the RTPI awards tomorrow night in London. A great chance to celebrate our achievements in reaching the national final for Best Small Consultancy and Best Project for the Natural Environment, as well as the achievements of the other finalists. #rtpi #awards #rtpiawards

Yesterday involved a wintery trip up to London for the launch of the Back Battery Storage campaign in the fantastic One Great George Street building in Westminster. Well done to Copper Consultancy for co-ordinating the event and pulling together a strong representation from the sector. Some great keynote speeches including a positive overview from Bill Esterson MP in his capacity as Chair of the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee. It seems that Government are listening to industry and are exploring the actions which can be taken to speed up the deployment of battery storage as a critical component of the UK’s energy system. There are multiple challenges which must be addressed, covering the following key issues: -         Fire safety standards and how we communicate actual risks with host communities and consultees -         Grid constraints and the management of new connections for prospective BESS projects -         The delivery of benefits to communities and ensuring that local people are able to recognise and derive a meaningful stake in the outputs of projects happening in their area -         Not least – Planning challenges. Our own observation here is that there is great inconsistency among LPAs, consultees and even Planning Inspectors as to how BESS schemes ought to be assessed and how the benefits of proposed schemes should be weighed in the planning balance. The purpose of the campaign is to advocate for the BESS sector and to communicate key challenges and solutions to Government and key stakeholders. A suggestion from Lighthouse Development Consulting is that there are likely some ‘quick wins’ that could be realised through clear Government communication (a Written Ministerial Statement?) which in the first instance clarifies the planning status of BESS as on par with other forms of renewable energy, and which bridges the gap between emerging BESS technologies and a current policy vacuum at Local Plan level. Onwards and upwards!

We're honoured to have been selected as national finalists in the Small Consultancy of the Year category. Looking forward to the ceremony in a few weeks time.

we're delighted that one of our projects is in the national finals.

Lighthouse Development Consulting are delighted to share the news that we have secured another consent for a 49.9 MW solar farm, on behalf of Pilmoor Solar Ltd (a subsidiary of Stark Energy). Consent was granted for Pilmoor solar farm in North Yorkshire on 11th September 2024. It is an excellent site for a solar farm, but as with all complex planning applications, it required some creative problem solving along the way. We are pleased to share our experience solving a few of the more interesting issues that arose.    1. Flood risk to offsite dwellings (gaining the support of the EA): Of course, solar farms are classified as ‘Essential Infrastructure’ and the panels and frames are not at risk from being submerged in water. However, the EA consider the panels have potential to displace flood water and increase flooding elsewhere, so they need to be lifted above the maximum flood depth (plus an allowance for climate change) to avoid this impact. The EA would typically share its flood data when its available but in this case, no flood risk modelling data was available, which is not uncommon. That would normally mean we must complete a time consuming and expensive data collection and modelling exercise. However, Lighthouse secured EA agreement to a design that accounted for climate change allowances based on reasoned assumptions, and secured EA buy-in with a sensible discussion about risks. The problem was solved quickly and with no modelling required. The EA stated “the trailing edge of each panel to be set a minimum of 600mm above the 1 in 100 year (with climate change) peak flood level” with an allowance for climate change to be an “approximation”.   2. Application of drone photography: This project was another good example of the effective use we make of drone photography – we were able to identify specific railway signals flagged by Network Rail without needing to go back to site, and could ensure screening recommendations in the Glint and Glare report were robust. The drone photography was also very helpful in proving the reuse of existing field access points.   3. Overcoming a procedural challenge: The recent successful JR Durham County Council v Lightsource Spv 215 Limited was raised as an issue to argue that the proposals should be a NSIP project based on the size of the footprint. Lighthouse successfully demonstrated the proposals were in fact a TCPA application 50MW or under, principally by refocusing the LPA on the relevance of the combined output of the inverters (as directed by the NPS) and which did not exceed 50 MW.   Special thanks to the wider project team: Ian Spindler Rowena Henderson Simon Fawcett Alexandros Petrakis MCIWEM C.WEM Syed Rahi Ayda Yates Tom Tribe Louise Tavasso at Soil Environment Services

We are very proud to share that Lighthouse Development Consulting is confirmed as a finalist in the national RTPI Excellence Awards for Best Small Consultancy of the Year 2024. "The RTPI awards category for Small Planning Consultancy of the Year celebrates small teams who deliver exceptional services, projects and plans." One of our projects has also been selected as a national finalist for demonstrating Excellence in Planning for the natural Environment. Fingers crossed for the awards ceremony in London on the 26 November 2024.

BESS Planning Success! The team at Lighthouse are delighted to confirm that Planning Permission has been granted by Cyngor Sir Ynys Môn | Isle of Anglesey County Council for a proposed Battery Energy Storage System (BESS). The application was submitted on behalf of our client, BOOM POWER and following the resolution of all technical planning matters it was approved under delegated powers with limited public opposition. The site was well located and designed to minimise environmental impacts, in particular, ensuring that there would be no intervisibility with the AONB to the north, no conflict with buried archaeology and appropriate buffer distances observed to all ecologically sensitive features of the site. Some important observations and lessons learned from the project: 1.     Meaningful Community Engagement - The site area was sensitive as there were many other energy developments being planned in the locality. It was therefore essential that the local community were actively informed and engaged in the planning process and the developer displayed a real commitment to the use of Welsh language.  Engagement with key agencies helped to engender a level of public support for the project whilst a strong community benefit contribution will ensure that the community directly share in the success of the scheme. 2.     A Co-operative LPA – The application was appropriately resourced by the LPA and technical planning challenges pertaining to noise, archaeology and flood risk were resolved through a collaborative approach, ensuring that sufficient evidence was provided to support the application 3.     Visual Communications – As ever, the use of strong visual aides were really useful in explaining the site selection process and the highlighting the on-site planning constraints which shaped the design Congratulations to the project team: Noise Impact: Simon W. Landscape Assessment: MHP Design Ltd Archaeology: Tim Malim Ecology: ADAS Communications: Ateb Flood Risk and Drainage: Bryan Harper Highways: Sam Denby