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Controversial plans to cover an area of Wiltshire countryside the size of 24 football pitches with solar panels have been thrown out by planners.
Members of Wiltshire Council’s strategic planning committee rejected plans for a solar farm and battery storage facility at Whistle Mead in Little Chalfield near Melksham.
The proposal, put forward by Blue Stone Renewables I Ltd, involved the installation of more than 31,000 solar panels, each standing at 2.7 metres tall.
The scheme would cover 17 hectares on a site totalling 26 hectares.
The site is located about 180 metres from the nearest house and under a mile from the Grade I listed Great Chalfield Manor.
A previous proposal for a solar farm on the site was refused at appeal in 2014.
Stewart Lovesey of ABEI Energy told councillors: “A lack of wind generation capacity locally means solar farms are essential to meet the council’s 2030 target for renewable energy generation.
“As recent developments in Iran show, the need for domestic energy and fuel resilience is high.
“Our plans would provide 14 megawatts of clean, renewable energy to the local grid. This is enough to power approximately 5,000 homes.”
Read more
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But during the three-hour debate, councillors heard and raised arguments against the proposal on grounds as varied as the impact on the landscape, the fire risk posed by 20 battery storage facilities (BESS), how fire engines would get to the site on lanes not wide enough for two cars to pass, and the risk of contaminated water from any potential fire-fighting effort getting into the aquifer below the site.
Wiltshire Council ward member Andrew Griffin (Melksham Without West & Rural, Liberal Democrat) expressed concerns about the cumulative effect of solar farms in the area which, he said, “equate to about three times the total residential area.”
And Cllr Nick Holder (Bowerhill, Conservative) added: “Were this application to be approved, we would have over 600 acres of solar within five kilometres of this site.
“Forty per cent of Wiltshire’s solar capacity is on just two per cent of its land area. I just don’t think (the planning officers have) addressed the cumulative impact.”
Officers responded that they were following national guidance.
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Cllr Howard Greenman (Kington, Conservative) was concerned that solar farms were being built without a way of connecting them to the National Grid.
“Something like 17 out of 19 of the last solar farm applications that have been approved in Wiltshire have no realistic prospect of good connection. That’s an enormously high number,” he said.
But officers assured the councillor that the applicant had secured a grid connection – although cabling would have to be dealt with under a separate planning application.
Cllr Nick Baker (Laverstock, Liberal Democrats) pushed for the scheme to be granted planning permission, saying: “BESS is absolutely vital if we’re going to decarbonise our electricity system, because solar panels don’t work at night, and it allows the system to respond to peaks of demand.
“And that is going to be really important to addressing the climate crisis, which actually is relevant to all of our residents and all of our communities.”
But his motion was voted down by seven votes to two.
A motion to refuse planning permission on the grounds of the size and scale of the scheme, and the cumulative impact of multiple solar farms, was proposed by Cllr Christopher Newbury (Wylye Valley, Conservative) and passed by six votes to two, with one abstention.
However, with much discussion based around what could be defended at a public inquiry, councillors are expecting an appeal from the applicant to the Planning Inspectorate.
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