Huge solar farm to get go-ahead
CONTROVERSIAL plans for a massive new solar farm in Devon, which could provide enough renewable energy to power 18,500 homes, are set for approval.
East Devon District Council’s planning committee is being recommended to back the plans for a major new development across a sweeping section of farmland.
The plans for the 30MW solar farm would cover 74 hectares of 27 individual agricultural field parcels to the east and south of the settlement of Marsh Green and to the east of Rockbeare and the A30.
Alongside the solar farm, a new woodland, wet meadow, stream and hedgerow ecological habitat and corridor enhancements and landscape planting with also be built.
The scheme has proven controversial, with the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) helping local residents to fight the proposals, saying the plans would ‘destroy’ hundreds of acres of productive land and increase the risk of their homes flooding.
Protesters at Marsh Green, between Ottery St Mary and Exeter Airport, had put up a sign saying ‘Grass Not Glass’, and are arguing that the prime farmland should be used for food production rather than being put out of agricultural use.
However, the report of planners say that the scheme is acceptable, especially in the absence of any technical objections. The substantial public benefit from this renewable energy proposal would support the Government’s national strategy and policy requirement to be net zero by 2050, the report adds.
It adds: “The proposal has been carefully considered with regard to all relevant material planning considerations and technical issues.
“There would be loss of some Grade 3A agricultural land, there would be some visual impacts, although localised and limited, and less than substantial harm to the significance of heritage assets.
“Officers consider that significant weight should be afforded to the wider environmental, social and economic benefits of this particular solar farm proposal which has the potential to power 18,500 homes using 100% renewable energy and that these benefits outweigh the identified limited landscape and heritage harm that would arise from the proposal.”
East Devon District Council planners will determine the fate of the application next Tuesday. The planning application at Marsh Green is the latest in a series to come forward in East Devon.