Buffer zone added to major solar park designs

Plans for a 2,000-acre solar park have been adjusted following concerns raised by residents.

Lime Down Solar Park, which would be built across north Wiltshire countryside, has been unpopular with many people in the area who are worried about impact on the landscape and farmland.

Developer, Island Green Power, said it had now added a buffer zone of 44 hectares (about 109 acres) between solar panels and sensitive areas after listening to feedback.

Will Threlfall, senior project development manager, said he wants to "keep the area as beautiful as possible".

Mr Threlfall told the BBC that the adjustment would not mean an increase in capacity for the solar park, which will aim to create 500MW of clean energy.

Due to its size, it is classified as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP), and has to be dealt with by the Planning Inspectorate rather than the local authority, Wiltshire Council.

Island Green Power has sent an environmental impact assessment to the inspectorate for the project, which it says could power more than 115,000 homes annually.

Mr Threlfall said the buffer zone "allows us to move it away from sensitive areas."

"There's a great deal of flexibility. We are working with a landscape, we are surveying a landscape and that is critical to the size the project can actually be," he added.

He explained the company had received a "substantial" amount of feedback and had been going through it "meticulously".

"People are affected by these schemes. It's on us as developers to be as responsible as possible," said Mr Threlfall.

Thousands of people have signed petitions and Wiltshire Council has previously asked the government to spread solar farms out "more evenly" around the country, with a number of them already in the county.

Campaign group Stop Lime Down is worried about how such a large development will affect the landscape, which includes Cotswolds heritage features like the Fosse Way, as well as footpaths and homes.

"It's important to reassure people that the scheme is designed to protect such features" said Mr Threlfall.

The former Conservative MP for the area, James Gray, described it as "monstrous destruction" and the current MP, Liberal Democrat Roz Savage, does not feel the environmental impact assessment goes far enough.

"I do accept that Island Green are listening to local concerns. The model we have across the whole country is fundamentally flawed," she added.

The statutory public consultation will be in early 2025 and the earliest construction could start is 2027.

Island Green Power is planning to hold more public engagement events in the coming months.

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