Wiltshire Council to ask the Government to ‘spread out’ solar farms

A council has agreed to write to the government to ask it to ensure solar farms are spread “more evenly” across the UK.

Many Wiltshire councilors believe the county has taken more than its fair share, with more than 40 solar farms and villages such as Whitley, Potterne and Broughton Gifford feeling “surrounded”.

Councilors voted on Wednesday to ask the government to ensure that solar farms are “more evenly spread across the UK” and “not concentrated in specific areas that effectively industrialise the countryside”.

Council leader Richard Clewer stressed they were not opposed to solar farms but agreed they needed more detail and a better explanation of what the government meant by “cumulative impact”.

The debate comes weeks after a public consultation on what would be one of the country’s largest solar farms ended.

The Lime Down project will see solar panels on 2,000 acres of farmland in six Wiltshire villages.

Sir Michael Pitt, former CEO of the Planning Inspectorate, spoke on behalf of the Stop Lime Down group, which supported the motion to write to the government.

He called the Lime Down proposal a “hugely damaging attack on the county’s landscape and way of life” and added that “future generations would wonder why we didn’t take better care of the county”.

While most of those who attended the meeting said they supported solar energy in general, they said the panels should be located on industrial sites or on rooftops.

Peter Richardson, a parish councilor for Whitley, near Melksham, said if Lime Down went ahead the village would be “completely surrounded by solar farms and associated infrastructure”.

Battery storage for the proposals would be in the village, with residents also concerned about the possibility of fires caused by batteries.

Meanwhile, Chippenham councilor and part of the Wiltshire Climate Alliance, Matthew Short, said that while he agreed there should be more solar on roofs, it would not “match the scale of the problem”.

He added that solar energy could benefit soil and wildlife on poorer agricultural land and that supporting solar projects is “essential to energy security”.

The developer behind the Lime Down scheme, Island Green Power, told the BBC it “recognises the importance of carefully balancing renewable energy initiatives with the need to preserve the aesthetic and environmental integrity of the areas in which we operate”.

It added that it wants to “minimize negative impacts and maximize positive impacts on the environment and local community as far as possible”.

Energy Security Secretary Claire Coutinho told Parliament on May 15 that with geopolitical tensions rising, prime farmland must be protected for food security.

It also reinforced the weight of planning policy and the need for solar to be delivered sensibly – ensuring developers and planning authorities consider the cumulative impact solar projects can have on local communities.