‘Massive’ Warwickshire solar farm approved despite stiff local opposition

Councillors have narrowly approved a “huge” solar farm in Warwickshire following staunch opposition from local residents.

Fosse Way Solar Farm will be built on a site covering 81 hectares of agricultural land south of Leamington Spa.

The solar farm will have a generating capacity of 20MW.

This will be sufficient to power roughly 4,662 homes and offset 4,339 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.

Stratford District Council’s Planning Committee granted planning permission to the solar farm on 2 April, with four councillors voting in favour and three against.

This follows a concerted effort by local residents to block the development, citing concerns that the proposal would adversely affect wildlife and deplete the area of farmland.

[Conservative councillor Anne Parry] has argued the project will cause villages in the area to become ‘meat in a solar sandwich’

276 letters of objection against the proposal were submitted, compared to 79 submitted in support.

One of the objection letters was submitted by Jeremy Wright, the Conservative MP for Kenilworth and Southam – the constituency in which the solar farm is set to be built.

This was accompanied by objections from Conservative councillor Anne Parry alongside three parish councils.

Parry, the councillor for the Wellesbourne North and Rural ward where the solar farm is being built, has suggested the project represents “over-development” of the local area that undermines its “rural landscape character”.

Noting this would be the second “large scale” solar farm in the ward, she has argued the project will cause villages in the area to become “meat in a solar sandwich”.

Conservative councillor Bill Fleming has also vocally opposed the project, noting he was “hugely concerned” by the resulting loss of agricultural land.

However, Stratford District Council has noted the development site is comprised of “lower quality” agricultural land, and that the project allows for continued agricultural use, such as “under-grazing” of sheep.

The project developers have agreed to bolster the solar farm’s environmental credentials by building wildlife habitats and planting new trees

One of the councillors in favour was Trevor Harvey, an independent.

Harvey cited national planning guidelines, which stipulate that the planning system should “support the transition to net zero by 2050” and “give significant weight to the benefits associated with renewable and low carbon energy generation”.

Besides national guidelines that encourage green development, proponents of the solar farm have noted that Stratford Council officially supports policies that encourage “investment in local and community renewable energy schemes”.

This follows the council’s declaration of a ‘Climate Emergency’ in 2019.

More broadly, the project developers have agreed to bolster the solar farm’s environmental credentials by building wildlife habitats and planting new trees.