Open hearings on massive solar park to begin in Chippenham

Campaigners against a massive solar park in north Wiltshire will be able to speak directly to Planning Inspectorate examiners today as first hearings on the project begin.

It surrounds plans for the Lime Down Solar Park, a proposal that spans more than 2,000 acres of Wiltshire countryside and could see solar panels that are the size of double-decker buses built.

Developers, Island Green Power (IGP), who are owned by Macquarie, who previously owned Thames Water when the organisation was plunged into debt, say the project could help power 115,000 homes via the national grid.

The hearings are being held over the next two days at the Neeld Community Arts Centre in Chippenham.

Anna-Kate Fuller from the campaign group, Stop Lime Down, says it's a pivotal moment.

"This is the moment where the examiners are going to be looking at all the evidence," she said, adding that examiners will be challenging IGP to justify each of the possible negative impacts of the scheme.

"This is our opportunity for our experts to put forward evidence to say this is extremely harmful for so many different reasons," she said.

Examiners to hear from those affected

The open floor hearings will offer people three minutes to share their feelings about the project.

During the pre-examination phase more than 5,000 people made relevant representations giving their thoughts on the plans, with only 1% in favour of it.

Anna-Kate said the campaign group was staggered by the level of response: "It was completely unprecedented to have that volume of responses."

Among those against the plans is Wiltshire Council.

Anna-Kate added that people had mentioned a vast range of concerns in their relevant representations including the impact on cyclists, wildlife, animals, mental health and future generations.

"There's real genuine concerns. We're absolutely terrified about the traffic and the congestion. Not just that, with over 20,000 extra vehicles on our roads, the danger that that is going to cause for us getting about our day-to-day lives," she said.

Renewables needed - but not at this cost, campaigners say

The Stop Lime Down group has been adamant from the start that it is not against renewable energy, but insists this project is both too big and in the wrong location.

Anna-Kate said she had confidence that the examiners will hear the concerns of people, admitting that they have a "tough job" in balancing the harms of the project against the benefits of solar power.

She said: "The harms are just so enormous that I feel quite confident that they will see that and hear it. And so at this point in time, I feel that the, you know, they will be welcome to a decision that this should not go ahead."

Anna-Kate suggest that rooftops would be better for collecting solar energy than building on farmland.

She encouraged anyone who can't be in Chippenham to join the online stream of the hearings and to visit stoplimedown.com for more information.