Plans for a battery storage facility the size of nine football pitches near a hamlet are progressing at a pace.

In January, Sky UK Development Ltd submitted paperwork to Canterbury City Council (CCC) for a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) half a kilometre from Calcott, near Sturry.

The city council has now ruled that an environmental impact assessment (EIA) is not needed for the project, clearing the way for developers to submit a planning application.

An EIA explores the impact a project will have on the nearby area, but Sky UK argued it was unlikely the system would need one, as the installation is planned to be “temporary and reversible,” with a proposed lifespan of 40 years.

Delivering their verdict earlier this month, council officers wrote: “Whilst there may be some impact on the surrounding area and nearby designated sensitive areas as a result of this development, it would not be of a scale and nature likely to result in significant environmental impact.”

The firm wants to build the 227.5MW facility on a 10.6-acre agricultural field a short distance from the A219 Canterbury Road.

The batteries store energy generated mainly from renewable sources so that it can be deployed into the grid when demand is higher, helping mitigate inefficiencies in solar and other green power.

Bosses argue the plot is ideal for such a use because it is close to “an available and viable point of grid connection” and is located in an area already with some existing industrial elements.

The project will require a long underground cable to connect to the grid at the Canterbury North substation about 4km south.

The large batteries which constitute a BESS are usually stored in shipping containers.

Nearby is the Woodlands Farm solar development off Sturry Hill, which began generating power in 2015 and has a capacity of 10MW.

Sky UK say the complex will involve “battery storage infrastructure, access tracks, underground cabling, perimeter fencing with CCTV cameras and access gates, a temporary construction compound and all ancillary grid infrastructure and associated works and landscaping.”

Such schemes are not without critics. In February last year, Swale Borough Council voted to reject the Battery Safety Management Plan for the BESS at Cleve Hill Solar Park - one of the country’s biggest - near Faversham.

They cited concerns about fires and other disasters, but their rejection was later ruled wrongful by the government and overturned.

BESS usually use lithium batteries - which cannot be directly extinguished with water if they catch fire, and water is instead used to cool neighbouring battery units to prevent the spread of fire.

However, most systems in the country have run without issue.