Solar panels to blight Hardy land
‘Decision is quite staggering’
A CONTROVERSIAL solar farm in countryside that inspired Thomas Hardy has been approved – amid claims it was only given the green light in the wake of the Cop26 climate summit.
Plans for the industrial-scale station, which will ‘decimate’ 189 acres of land in Dorset, were condemned by planning experts, conservationists and hundreds of residents.
The land is part of the Blackmore Vale which Hardy, who wrote Jude the Obscure and Far From the Madding Crowd, called the ‘Vale of the Little Dairies’ in his works. He chose it as the backdrop of his 1891 classic Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Historic England, the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and local planning authority officials said the scheme would cause unacceptable harm to the landscape. Ray Hartley, of the charity CPRE, claimed the influence of Cop26, held this month, swung a council vote in favour of green energy.
He said: ‘The Government has itself stressed that any measures like solar farms must be proportionate and balanced against potential harm to the countryside. The decision is quite staggering. It can only be the fall out from Cop26 that swung it.’ He said the vale was ‘visible for miles around’. Some 150,000 solar panels will be built at Higher Stockbridge Farm in Longburton, near Sherborne – equivalent to 140 football pitches.
It will power more than 10,000 homes for the next 35 years.
Renewable energy giant Voltalia UK submitted plans to Dorset Council, which had declared a ‘climate emergency’ in 2019.
It received 369 letters of objection, including from the council’s planning officer, conservation officer and landscape architect. The council’s strategic planning committee voted six to two for it.
Lib Dem councillor David Tooke backed the vote, saying: ‘We’ve just had Cop26 and if we were to say no... but weren’t prepared to do anything about [the climate emergency] because it might spoil a pretty bit of countryside, then that didn’t sit right with me.’