Solar farm plans blocked by BaNES council
The proposed 28.2 hectare solar farm would have generated enough electricity to power 5,763 homes
Bath and North East Somerset Council’s planning committee has blocked plans for a major solar farm — despite the council having declared a climate emergency.
The proposed 28.2 hectare solar farm would have generated enough electricity to power 5,763 homes and increased the renewable energy being generated in the area by two fifths. But people living in the 22-home village of Burnett next door to the planned farm said their landscape would be “blighted with an industrial scale eyesore.”
Planning committee member John Leach (Walcot, Liberal Democrat) disagreed. He said: “I don’t see it as an eyesore and I think future generations will be even more likely not to see this as an eyesore but to see it as a possible sign of our efforts to deal with a crisis as a crisis.”
He said the council should be doing as much as it could to generate renewable energy. Bath and North East Somerset Council declared a climate emergency in 2019, The agent for the applicant told the planning committee debating the plans on September 24 that the scheme was a “direct response” to the council’s climate emergency declaration — but local councillor Duncan Hounsell (Saltford, Liberal Democrat) said: “Solar is not a trump card.”
Bath and North East Somerset Council has a target of generating 110 MW of renewable energy by 2029. As of 2023, an estimated 47MW of renewables had been installed since 2010 although another 86MW has planning permission to be built. This solar farm would have generated 22.6MW.
Mr Hounsell told councillors on the planning committee that the impact on the green belt outweighed the environmental impacts, stating: “The target for renewable energy is an aspirational target and it’s not the case that you should permit any such planning application until that target is met. … On your site visit you saw the panoramic view from Gypsy Lane. Even in driving rain the vista was magnificent.”
The planning committee voted to refuse planning permission on the grounds of inappropriate development in the green belt, significant harm to the landscape, and adverse visual impacts. Planning committee member Paul Crossley (Southdown, Liberal Democrat) said the scheme was “just far too large, far too impactful on the rural landscape.”
Burnett local Rosemary Turner had told the committee she had concerns about flooding and said: “Residents chose to live here for its beauty … Nobody wants to see this rural idyll destroyed.” Philippa Paget of Compton Dando Parish Council added: “The increasing number of solar farms and proposed solar farms locally have a cumulative effect of industrialization on the local natural beauty and precious green belt.”
The agent for the applicant had told the planning committee that the land was grade four, considered poor quality agricultural land. In June, the council had granted planning permission for a solar farm on grade 3a agricultural land near Paulton despite warnings it would mean losing quality farmland.
The total side of the farm located south of Gypsy Lane between Burnett village and Burnett Business Park, would have been 28.2 hectares although solar panels would only have covered 18 hectares of the site, with other parts of the site including supporting infrastructure and biodiversity enhancements. The plan would have increased biodiversity on the site by 54%, above the required 10%.
Bath and North East Somerset Council also has a target of generating 12MW of power directly as a council to cover the council’s own power usage. The council has already delivered 1.5MW of electricity generation through rooftop solar projects, and installed heat pumps to two council care homes. The city’s natural hot springs are also used to heat the Roman Baths and Pump Rooms complex, Bath World Heritage Centre, and Bath Abbey. The council is also looking at installing a small hydroelectric power scheme next to Pulteney Weir in the very centre of Bath when it replaces the Pulteney Radial gate.