Solar panels unanimously approved for West Dorset holiday park
300 panels are to go up at Highlands End in Eype
A large set of solar panels have been agreed for the Highlands End holiday park at Eype.
Despite opposition to the proposed site, councillors decided unanimously that the 300 panels were only likely to be seen from nearby public paths – and over time new landscaping would mute even that view.
The panels will provide most of the site’s electricity needs with the ability to export excess power to the national grid, making significant savings in cost and carbon emissions.
One of the site owners told the planning committee which decided the scheme:
“The legacy to my grandchildren will be that we stood up and contributed to the (climate) challenge.”
Protestors had stressed they were not against the panels, just the location, which they said would undermine the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the setting of Eype village.
Dorset Council officers had recommended the area planning committee to reject the application taking a similar view to opponents of the scheme – adding that not enough had been done by Highlands End to seek out an alternative location for the panels.
But councillors disagreed – Bridport Cllr Kelvin Clayton saying it boiled down to the benefits of solar power compared to the ‘harm’ to the landscape.
He said, that in his view, the harm, if there was any, would only be slight.
Crossways councillor Nick Ireland, who walks and runs in the area, said he shared the opinion, reinforced by carrying out a site visit with other councillors:
“After the site visit in my mind I couldn’t find any harm at all – the thing you mostly notice is the holiday park … you wouldn’t see it (the solar panel site) unless you were on a path close to it and soft planting will help."
An alternative site had been suggested but councillors decided that would be seen to a similar extent as the preferred site closer to the park.
A larger scheme, put forward in 2021, had been rejected, attracting similar negative comments to the current scheme.
Many of the sixty objectors claimed the field proposed for the solar panels provides a natural buffer between the Conservation Area, village and the holiday park.
Three of the objectors spoke to Thursday’s committee to re-iterate their views and back the council officer recommendation to refuse.
The site owners said in their statement that they had chosen the most inconspicuous site for the panels to give a practical and effective connection to the existing transformer – which would save 47,000kgs of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere each year.
They promised to work with the council’s conservation officer to mitigate the view of the site by careful landscaping.