Plans for more than 4,500 solar panels in West Wickham rejected
They would have provide energy for more than 650 homes
Last updated 2nd Oct 2023
Plans to build more than 4,500 solar panels across the South Cambridgeshire countryside have been rejected.
An appeal to build a solar farm on farmland in West Wickham has been lost after the planning inspector raised concerns about the “harmful effect” of the plans on the landscape.
The application had proposed to install around 4,580 solar panels over 22 rows on land south east of Burton End.
Planning documents said the solar farm could provide energy for more than 650 homes in the area.
The solar farm was proposed to be in place for 25 years, after which it would have been decommissioned and the land returned to agricultural use.
The plans did propose to keep some of the farming use, explaining that sheep would be allowed to graze on the land.
The developer also said the visual impact of the solar farm on the wider landscape would be “mostly negligible”.
They said: “The proposed development would make a significant contribution to achieving net zero by 2050 by increasing the amount of zero carbon renewable electricity generated and supplied to the National Grid. This would assist in decarbonising the UK’s energy production sector.”
The application was refused by South Cambridgeshire District Council back in 2021.
The authority said the new solar farm would be “highly visible” and would result in a “visually incongruous and intrusive urban form of development that would be completely out of character with the surrounding open countryside and rural landscape”.
The district council also said the solar farm would also mean the loss of the “best and most versatile agricultural land”.
The planning inspector said they did not agree with the district council’s concerns around the loss of agricultural land, however, they did share concerns about the impact of the solar farm on the countryside.
The inspector said: “The attractive unspoilt open qualities of the appeal site would be replaced by regimented rows of uniform solar panels mounted on metal frames together with ancillary buildings.
“The homogenous and typically geometric form of the proposal together with its industrial appearance and dark finish would erode the rural character of the appeal site and diminish its contribution to the key landscape characteristics of the West Wickham Wooded Claylands area.
“Within this context, I find that the proposal would read as a highly obtrusive and discordant form of development. As such, it would have a harmful effect on the landscape.”
Although the permission would be temporary, the planning inspector said 25 years was still a long time.