Plans for giant solar farm near Kenilworth are given green light

Plans for a giant solar farm with enough clout to power 6,000 homes on rural land to the west of Kenilworth have been given green light – despite planning professionals recommending rejection.

The 54.6 hectare plot of mainly agricultural land, equivalent to approximately 85 full-size football pitches, sits to the west of Honiley Road, Honiley, and in the green belt.

Warwick District Council received 120 objections from the public as well as Beausale, Haseley, Honiley & Wroxhall Parish Council and Warwickshire County Council’s landscape department.

The bulk of the arguments against were around the visual impact on the green belt, that the temporary 40-year permission should not be considered temporary in practice and the loss of farmland.

The key point from planning officer Adam Walker was that the very special circumstances that are required to develop green belt land did not exist but he acknowledged in addressing the district’s planning committee – the panel of councillors tasked with making the decision – that it was a finely balanced and subjective call.

A parish councillor, three members of the public and Councillor Richard Hales (Con, Kenilworth Abbey & Arden), the ward member for the area, spoke against, while the landowner and a planner for applicant Enso highlighted the benefits.

Part of Enso’s argument for very special circumstances was that no brownfield sites – previously developed land – were available or viable close enough to the connection point at Berkswell substation for a project that creates such a volume of green energy.

That was, in part, acknowledged in Mr Walker’s report, and ultimately swung the balance.

Councillor Bill Gifford (Lib Dem, Leamington Milverton) said: “I find this an extremely difficult application and I suspect the officers had similar problems.

“One of the things that is pushing me, very slightly and on balance, to support the application and go against the officers’ recommendation is that this appears to need to be in this area so it isn’t too far from the substation and the electricity produced can go without much loss.

“I am very reluctant to see development in the green belt but this is not housing, factories or that sort of development, it is the type of development that you wouldn’t really notice to the same extent when you are driving along or walking past.

“If it means producing power for 6,000 homes, it does seem to me that we should be considering it.

“I am torn but I think I have to come down in favour of the application.”

Eight of the committee voted to grant permission with three against.

One of those inclined to say no was Councillor Judy Falp (Whitnash Residents’ Association, Whitnash).

She asked: “If this (connection to the substation) can go farther than five miles, why put it in the green belt?

“It is finely balanced. I have nothing against solar farms, I am just not convinced the circumstances are special enough to override the green belt.”

“We don’t like sheds or large extensions in the green belt, to suddenly put the amount of stuff that would go on there for 40 years does, to me, destroy that part of the green belt.

“I can understand the balance, we need renewable energy but there are other ways.”