Battery energy storage facility plans refused

By Local Democracy Reporter Daniel Mumby

Plans to build a battery energy storage facility on the north-eastern edge of Frome have been thrown out on road safety grounds.

Enray Power Ltd applied in April 2025 to site such a facility at St George’s Cross Farm on Berkley Lane on the north-eastern edge of Frome, near the Commerce Park enterprise zone and the busy A361.

The facility would have been built a few hundred yards from the Pines Residential site, with councillors voting in early-April to reject plans for the latter’s expansion.

The council has now rejected the battery site as well, arguing that a safe vehicular access cannot be achieved and the proposals would be “an inconvenience to all users of the route”.

This decision comes less than six months after the council lost an appeal over a similar facility on Styles Close, just two miles away.

Battery energy storage facilities take power from the National Grid during times of low demand, store it and then release it back into the power grid at times of higher demand.

The facility would have had an operational capacity of 60MW – twice the size of its Styles Close counterpart – and would have been in operation for 40 years.

Access would be achieved from Berkley Lane, with a security fence and CCTV being installed and a water tank being constructed to cool the equipment.

A spokesperson for Stephenson Halliday (representing the applicant) said, “The increase in energy security and the contribution the proposed development would have in facilitating renewable energy production in the UK energy mix, would outweigh the totality of any adverse impacts the proposed development might result in.”

Councillor Adam Boyden, whose Frome North division includes the site, strongly objected to the plans, arguing it would undercut efforts to prevent fly-tipping on the edge of the town.

He said, “The proposal includes the removal of the road blocks and to suspend the right to use vehicles along Berkley Lane for the duration of construction.

“These blocks and restrictions have only just been put in place, after many years of costly work by the council and its predecessors in order to reduce fly-tipping in the area, associated harm to the environment, and the considerable costs of clearance (amounting to £200,000 since 2014).

“The restrictions had considerable local support, particularly in the hamlet of

Berkley Marsh, the residential area closest to the development.

“It is disappointing that someone want to come along so soon and ruin all that work.”

The plans were refused by the council’s planning officers through their delegated powers, rather than a public decision by its planning committee east (which handles major applications within the former Mendip area).

Bill Cotton, the council’s interim service director of planning, said, “Inadequate information has been submitted to satisfy us that a satisfactory means of access to the site can be achieved.”

Enray has not yet indicated whether it wishes to appeal this decision.