Solar Farm plans rejected over fears it would cause “adverse harm” to landscape

PLANS for a new solar farm to provide power to a major Frome housing development have been scrapped after planners ruled it would cause “adverse harm” to the landscape. 

The Selwood Garden Community (SGC) proposals, if approved, will deliver 1,700 new homes at Frome’s southern edge over a 15-year period, along with employment units, a new school and other amenities. 

Land Value Alliances (LVA) put forward plans in January for a substantial solar farm at the eastern edge of the development area, either side of the Bristol to Weymouth railway line. 

But these plans have been withdrawn following objections from Mendip District Council’s environmental team – with the developer stating it will find alternative ways to providing the new homes with renewable energy. 

This comes shortly after a decision on the wider development was pushed back until at least the autumn following objections by National Highways. 

The solar farm would have been constructed near Birchill Lane and Feltham Lane, with a community orchard being provided in the western section and an existing footpath through the site being diverted and improved. 

Under the wider SGC proposals, Birchill Lane will be turned into a “greenway”, restricting car use in the area and providing a footpath link between the new homes and the town centre. 

Charles Potterton, the district council’s consultant landscape architect, said the solar farm’s impact on neighbouring properties and the wider landscape would be “majorly adverse”. 

He elaborated, “The panels will clearly be visible from all the frontage properties and from anyone using the path network in the area.  While I understand that the public right of way could be re-routed, the visual harms would still exist for those walking on the path and those either walking or cycling on Birchill Lane. The proposed development would fundamentally change the undeveloped, rural character of the site by covering a large proportion of it with man-made engineered infrastructure. 

“The normal life of these installations is at least 25 years. While technically this makes them ‘temporary’, this is a lengthy period of time, throughout which the harm caused would persist. 

“Renewable energy is supported through both local and national policy, providing it does not cause an unacceptable degree of harm. I find that there is adverse harm to landscape character and significant adverse visual harms from both sites and that the mitigation would not be able to reduce those harms to an acceptable level.” 

Following this response, LVA opted to withdraw the plans rather than wait for a formal decision from officers or the council’s planning board – or lodge an appeal on the grounds of non-determination. 

A spokesperson said, “The Selwood Garden Community (SGC) Consortium recently withdrew its application for a solar park connected to the wider mixed-use development proposed south of Frome. This was in response to local and Mendip District Council officers’ concerns regarding landscape impacts. 

“This is disappointing to us because all solar parks have similar landscape impacts and the proposals would have made the SGC project carbon positive in terms of its long-term operation. Putting this disappointment aside, we are now looking to generate as much renewable energy within the main SGC site as possible, so it will be close to carbon neutral. 

“This will ensure a level of energy efficiency and sustainability far in excess of that delivered on recent developments in the town, and that required by national and local planning policies – underlining our commitment to create a truly exemplar development here.” 

The company added that the decision to withdraw the solar farm plans was in no way motivated by the delay in determining the wider master plan for the development site. 

The spokesperson said, “The withdrawal of the solar park application was not in response to the holding direction from National Highways (NH) to the SGC scheme, which relates to current capacity issues on specific junctions of the A36. 

“These junctions are currently problematic, irrespective of SGC, and we are working with NH to develop a scheme of improvement works for them – the cost of which will be borne by development and not the public purse. 

“Details of these improvement works will be made public once agreed with NH, and we continue to work hard to deliver positive infrastructure improvement works associated with the SGC development to ensure mistakes that have been made on historic developments in the town are not repeated.”