Second attempt to get permission for solar farm at Maiden Newton
A previous application was turned down by Dorset Council, and an appeal
A second attempt is being made to build a solar farm within the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty near Maiden Newton.
Dorset councillors had previously rejected the use of the site – which was upheld by a planning appeal.
Now the company behind the scheme, Enviromena, is asking for a fresh look at the Cruxton Farm site.
It has submitted pre-application papers to Dorset Council dealing with the need for an Environmental Impact Assessment for the site, confirming that a new application, substantially the same as before, will be submitted later.
Had the application been approved it would have had the capacity to produce enough electricity for more than 4,700 homes.
Among the reasons for rejecting the site was the belief that it would have dominated the landscape and have a negative effect on a section of the 200-mile long national Macmillan Trail, which runs adjacent to where the panel were planned for.
Enviromena said that although there had been a small number of objections most local people, including Maiden Newton parish council, had supported the plans to use the two field with enough panels to generate 12.5MW of power a year over 40 years.
Planning officers, the Dorset Campaign to Protect Rural England, the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty team and Natural England all argued that the scheme would cause harm to the AoNB, now known as a National Landscape Site, and that the developers had failed to make a case for why they could not build elsewhere in a less damaging area.
Enviromena said that despite the concerns the company believed extra planting and other landscaping on the 18 hectare site, which is on high ground, would mask the panels and result in a net gain for biodiversity in the area.
“We have a clear commitment to leave places we touch in a better condition than when we arrived,” said a spokesman, arguing that the visual impact of the site would be acceptable and any harm would be outweighed by the public benefits in both the local and national interest.”
In the new papers submitted to Dorset Council it says that the solar panels proposed will be no more than 2.6m tall, with a perimeter fence limited to 2.2m with no closed circuit cameras planned and with construction access from an existing field entrance off Greenford Lane which, in turn, goes back to the A356 Dorchester Road.