A solar farm is to be set up at Leighton Grange Farm in Crewe to provide power for the the nearby green and food waste composting plant.

Cheshire East Council applied for permission from its own strategic planning board to set up the 5MW solar PV array, comprising ground mounted solar PV panels and battery storage compound on the site off Middlewich Road.

The food and waste plant, Biowise Limited, recycles up to 75,000 tonnes of leftover food and biodegradable waste a year.

The £7 million pound investment opened in 2020.

Planning officer Philippa Radia told Wednesday's meeting: "The site is adjacent to the organic waste sites where the council disposes of the green and food waste.

"The site is some distance from residential properties and does not raise any issues in terms of residential amenity. There will be a limited amount of hedgerow loss and no significant trees will be lost."

Daniel Griffiths, representing Cheshire East Council as the applicant, said: "The aim of the scheme is to respond to the climate emergency and also to contribute towards the council becoming carbon neutral by 2025.

"The plan is to build what is a relatively modest solar farm compared to the big commercial farms.

"It's designed to help de-carbonise the composting plant, so it will be providing around 40% of the power required for the composting plant." He said it would also potentially feed into the council's operations after the composting plant use had been accounted for. The composting plant building is owned by Cheshire East Council. Mr Griffiths added: "We've tried to optimise the environmental benefits of the solar scheme alongside minimising the impact on land, amenity and ecology. "Once built it will produce around five million units of electricity per annum, enough to power around 1,500 homes." The approved 1.8 mile Crewe link road will run close to Leighton Grange Farm and the proposed solar farm. Construction begins this summer. The board voted unanimously to approve the application. [I] Crewe: Have you signed up for our FREE weekly newsletter out tomorrow? It contains each week's top 10 Crewe news stories, and one EXCLUSIVE article. To sign up just enter your email address in the box below.