Reaction to Rishi Sunak’s comments on the A1 and solar farms during campaign visit to Lincolnshire

Candidates have hit back at comments on the A1 and solar farms made by Rishi Sunak during a campaign visit to the area.

The Prime Minister’s General Election campaign featured a stop off at Great Wood Farm Early Years Centre in Boothby Pagnell on Monday (June 17) — and he was quizzed on his views on burning issues for the area.

He vowed to make a ‘strong investment’ in safety on the A1 and to block solar farms on prime growing land.

Charmaine Morgan, the chair of the SOS Grantham Hospital campaign who is standing in the Grantham and Bourne constituency as an independent, said: “As someone who has used the A1 stretch of road over the five years in which Gareth Davies (MP before the election was called) had promised to make improvements, I have personally been involved in near misses on this dreadful road and subject to horrendous delays and diversions.

“However, the solutions to this problem will be hugely costly and likely require the works at Colsterworth to be repeated several times. The main problem is the ability for local village traffic to cross over this dangerous dual carriageway.”

Lib Dem candidate John Vincent was not impressed by Mr Sunak’s pledge — and accused the Conservative Government of not maintaining his standards on road safety during their time in power.

He said: “Road safety on the main A1 needs more than warm words from Rishi Sunak.

“By all means improve road safety regulations but watering them down, like extending hours for lorry drivers, does nothing for safer roads for you and me.”

Mrs Morgan said that one of the knock-on effects of having an A&E at Grantham means there is no such unit close to the A1 between Peterborough and York.

The Prime Minister’s vow on solar farms comes after a host of large scale applications in and around the area.

Mr Vincent said he accepts the placement of such developments creates “strong feelings in the local community.”

He thinks large scale solar farms should not be pushed onto communities — and that ‘local democracy must prevail’, with high quality farmland avoided.

Mrs Morgan said that as chair of South Kesteven District Council’s planning committee she would keep an open mind on each application, but feels Mr Sunak’s policies thus far do not protect much of the area’s food production land.

She added: “In short the Government policy on solar farms is too little - too late. We have a major exercise to do to catch up on installations. I hope our Government will use the incredible innovations coming from our local universities to address this issue.”

The full list of candidates for the Grantham and Bourne seat is: he candidates in the Grantham and Bourne parliamentary constituency are:

• Vipul Bechar (Labour)

• Gareth Davies (Conservative)

• Anne Gayfer (Green)

• Alexander Mitchell (Social Democratic Party)

• Charmaine Morgan (Lincolnshire Independents)

• Mike Rudkin (Reform)

• Ian Selby (Independent)

• John Vincent (Liberal Democrats)

All candidates were given an opportunity to react to the Prime Minister’s visit and the comments he made.