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Residents of a Wiltshire community where a 200-acre solar farm will be built say they are “extremely disappointed” by a decision to give it the go-ahead.
Wiltshire Council threw out proposals for Potterne Solar Farm last summer, with one councillor saying the county had become a “dumping ground” for solar farms.
But Potterne Solar Farm Limited appealed to the Planning Inspectorate, and this week, planning inspector Cullum Parker ruled the project could go ahead.
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Reacting to the announcement, a spokesperson for the Potterne Solar Action Group said: “This is a sad day for Potterne and surrounding villages.
“A major industrial development has been approved in open countryside even though it is not expected to connect to the grid until 2037.
“Communities are being asked to accept immediate and lasting impacts, while the promised benefits are pushed far into the future and remain uncertain.
“There are also very real concerns about how this scheme could be constructed at all, with access arrangements that risk causing disruption and even chaos on local roads.
“At the same time, serious gaps in ecological evidence — particularly relating to rare protected bats — have not been properly resolved.”
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— Gazette & Herald (@wiltsgazette) April 13, 2026
They added: “The issues we raised — particularly on ecology and access — do not go away with this decision.
“They will need to be addressed in detail before any work can begin, and we have serious doubts that they can withstand that level of scrutiny.
“We will be challenging these issues at every stage.”
PSAG also warned that the decision reflects a wider concern: “There is a growing risk that sites are being approved without a realistic delivery pathway, effectively tying up land for speculative projects while communities bear the immediate impact.”
The Potterne Park Farm site lies between the villages of Potterne, Urchfont, and Easterton, and the council’s rejection of the planning application rested on the visual impact of the proposal on the landscape.
But the planning inspector said the benefits of solar energy outweighed the impact on the countryside.
“I find that there would be some harm to the character and appearance of the area, but the area in which the harm would be experienced would be very limited and very localised,” he said.
“Wiltshire leads UK counties with over 820MW of solar capacity operational or committed, exceeding its 2030 target by 39 per cent,” he conceded.
“This is a commendable achievement; helping England and the UK in achieving its net zero aspirations and ensuring the supply of renewable energy generated electricity for the wider public good.”
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