MP Ian Liddell-Grainger has welcomed the Government’s new commitment to protect the country’s best agricultural land from solar farm developments.
He says the move, though long overdue, will be invaluable in ensuring the country can produce more of its own food as global production comes under pressure from climate change.
The Government says solar farms should now only be built on brownfield or industrial sites or on poorer-quality agricultural land. High-grade land should be avoided.
And, it says, planners need to take into account the impact of multiple solar developments in the same locality,
The new guidelines take immediate effect and will apply to all future applications as well as those currently being processed.
Mr Liddell-Grainger, MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset, said the measures represented a line in the sand which would greatly assist those campaigning against the spread of inappropriately-sited solar farms.
“I know many of my rural colleagues have been as concerned as I at the cumulative effects these projects can have,” he said.
“Not only have we been alarmed by their visual impact we have warned the Government time and again that we cannot go on sacrificing prime farmland to solar power generation.
“When climate change and armed conflict are both impacting on food supplies right around the globe it is utter and complete folly. Improving our ability to feed ourselves from our own land must take priority.”
At the moment planners are considering proposals for a huge solar park on land owned by the Wyndham Estate north of Washford Cross, where local objectors are now supported by the CPRE.
Mr Liddell-Grainger has accused the estate owners of turning their backs on its long and distinguished record of supporting agriculture in Somerset and indulging in corporate greed with a project which will put farmers out of business.
“This is precisely the kind of development these new measures are designed to block,” he said.
“There is already one solar array in this area and a second would have the effect of creating a massive, unsightly intrusion into a relatively unspoiled landscape, as well as being sited on high-grade land.
“I trust the Somerset Council planners will take due note of the new Government guidance.”
