Solar park ‘would cost £1.8m in lost tourism’

1 hour ago

Peter DavisonLocal Democracy Reporting Service, Wiltshire

LDRS A crowd of people in red T-shirts hold red signs reading "Stop Lime Down" and green signs reading "protect food" outside a large municipal building with the words "county hall" above the door.

A controversial solar farm would cost a local economy nearly £1.8m in lost tourism spending if approved, according to a council document.

The sum would be lost during each year of construction of Lime Down Solar Park, a 878-hectare site north of the M4 near Malmsbury, said Wiltshire Council.

Due to the size of the project, planning permission will be decided by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.

Wiltshire Council has prepared a briefing document outlining its criticisms ahead of an extraordinary meeting on 6 January, when councillors will sign off their formal response to the plans. Developer Island Green Power estimates that the project would take two years to build.

The developer has also said the project would power 115,000 homes and “support national and regional aims to decarbonise our electricity systems and bolster our energy security”.

But the current Liberal Democrat-led cabinet of Wiltshire Council opposes the project, as the previous Conservative-led cabinet did.

The plan has also attracted fierce opposition from locals.

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The briefing paper notes the scheme’s benefits for the UK’s net zero targets, but states there are “significant adverse impacts” for the local community, economy and environment.

It said the construction phase will offer a “short-term jobs uplift” but that “a reduction in tourism spending of £1.76m per year” was anticipated during this period, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The document predicts “the loss of up to 20 agricultural jobs and 50 tourism jobs”.

It states that the reassigning of agricultural land will equate to the loss of approximately 5,000 tonnes of crops annually.

PA Media Aerial image showing several fields and rural roads, with a handful of houses scattered among the countryside scene.

The park is expected to cause “substantial, long-term harm to landscape character” and may pose flood risks, the paper adds.

The council is also concerned about the ability of the area’s narrow roads to cope with HGVs.

The document described how council planning officers found it difficult to navigate the thousands of pages of documents submitted by Island Green Power in support of its application.

It said the “volume of material and the amount of repetition and cross-referencing within the application” would make it difficult for the community to engage with the proposals too.

The briefing paper concludes that “the council does not support the proposal as submitted”.

Those eligible to comment on the proposed development can do so before 9 January.

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