Wiltshire Council formally objects to Lime Down solar farm
January 7, 2026
Council objects to ‘inappropriate’ solar farm plan
BBCA council has formally objected to plans to create one of the UK’s largest solar farms in Wiltshire.
Island Green Power has submitted plans to build a 500-megawatt solar farm, known as Lime Down Solar Park, to the north of the M4 near Malmesbury.
At a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Wiltshire Council said it had “significant unresolved concerns” which included construction emissions and job losses.
Will Threlfall, from Lime Down Solar Park, said: “The topics raised by Wiltshire Council will be part of the planning inspectorate’s examination of our application, and we will respond to individual points as part of this process.”
Lime Down Solar Park would be four miles (6.4km) wide and two miles (3.2km) long, with solar panels that would stand at 14.7ft (4.5m) tall, roughly the height of a double decker bus.
Due to the scale of the plans, final planning permission will be decided by the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband.
Campaigners have claimed the site would swamp the villages it encompasses including Hullavington, Stanton St Quintin, Sherston, Luckington and Upper Seagry.
Councillor Adrian Foster told BBC Radio Wiltshire: “While we support renewable energy in principle, this project doesn’t strike any of the right balances between energy generation and protecting Wiltshire’s landscape.
“We’re not ‘nimbys’ in this approach and attitude, because as Wiltshire we have some of the largest percentage of solar panel arrays around the county.
“This one is sizable, the height of some of these solar panels here and the effect they will have on the landscape is enormous.
“It’s that particular location that is inappropriate: the heritage, the ecology, the economy and the communities there.”
However, he said that the biggest concern was the distance Lime Down would be from the Melksham substation where it would be connected to the National Grid.
‘Two or three Lime Downs’
The UK government plans to triple the nation’s solar power capacity by 2030. Matthew Short, from Wiltshire Climate Alliance, said that in that context the amount of UK solar capacity provided by Wiltshire needed to increased.
“I think we have about 7% [of the UK output] currently in Wiltshire, so yes it’s true we do have a lot of solar in Wiltshire,” Short said.
But he added that if that was “scaled that up proportionally” then Wiltshire would need to contribute another 1.9 gigawatts “which would be two or three Lime Downs”.
“So if you look at where we are to where we need to get nationally and you say ‘well ok, this is a good location to do it’ then yes, we do need to scale up,” added Short.
The planning inspectorate has said all comments on the proposals need to be received by Friday 9 January.
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