Decision deferred on plan for 19-field solar farm

A decision on plans for a solar farm stretching across 19 agricultural fields in Cornwall has been deferred.

Cornwall Council's Strategic Planning Committee has been considering an application from French energy company EDF Power Solutions for the site in Trelion, St Stephen. The company wants to build the 49.9MW solar array across 82.5 hectares (204 acres) of land.

Campaign group Stop Trelion Solar gathered outside the meeting to demonstrate opposition to the plans. Member Rose Barnecut said the land should be used for growing food.

The committee agreed to defer voting on the plans until after a site visit.

Cornwall Council's strategic planning committee had been advised to approve the application, despite opposition from the local council member, St Stephen-in-Brannel Parish Council and more than 100 people.

The council's planning department said the weight attached to the provision of renewable energy development was significant, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

But committee members said they were unable to vote in favour and decided to defer for a site visit by committee members and officers to view the "possible cumulative impact on the area".

The meeting heard the application received 137 comments on Cornwall Council's planning portal, with two in support. But councillors were told by officers they could only turn down the application if it was found to have "significant harm to the environment".

They were warned the council had lost the last six appeals against solar farms due to government policy and its promotion of renewable energy sites.

But Rose Barnecut, from Stop Trelion Solar, said her family had been farming land opposite the proposed site for more than 100 years.

"For us this is our countryside that's the backdrop to our lives," she said. "This is our land that's producing food for us.

"We risk losing all of this for it being taken over by a foreign multinational company that's actually chosen this area for solar development because it's easier, more accessible and therefore more profitable."

She added: "Of course we need renewable energy but it's a question of where we place those renewable answers and what the cost is.

"You can't just dump everything on the middle of Cornwall, you know, there have got to be other solutions to this."

Elaine Kist, the Reform UK councillor for the area, added: "This is not just another renewable energy scheme, it will spread across 19 fields on a prominent ridge overlooking the heart of our parish."

Cllr Nigel Spragg, of St Stephen-in-Brannel Parish Council, said the solar farm would cause "unacceptable harm to the rural landscape" and the surrounding infrastructure would be "industrial in scale and materially alter the character of the countryside".

Musa Choudhary, of EDF Power Solutions, told the meeting the solar farm would reduce reliance on imported energy and increase the country's resilience against volatile international energy markets.

He said the scheme had been refined following concerns raised throughout the application process. Landcape impacts have been reduced through amendments, the retention of existing hedgerows and additional planting.

Choudhary said solar farms currently occupied only 0.3% of Cornwall's total land area.

Following the meeting a spokesperson for EDF Power Solutions added: "We continue to believe the site is an excellent location for the size of solar farm proposed."

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