Botley West Update Christmas 2023

Botley West developers look set to ruin Christmas for thousands of Oxfordshire residents.

The developers behind the massive Botley West solar farm look set to spoil Christmas for many local people by putting their plans out for consultation over the festive period.

Both CPRE Oxfordshire and the Stop Botley West campaign group specifically asked the developers, PVDP, to delay their consultation until January.   However, in a Statement of Community Consultation now published on their website, PVDP say that they aim to begin consultation on 30 November running until 8 February.

Helen Marshall, Director, CPRE Oxfordshire said: “The environmental information alone is likely to run to hundreds if not thousands of pages.  We believe that if they were genuinely interested in the views of local people, they would be ensuring that the consultation ran at a more appropriate time. 

“However, we will be urging everyone to do their best to review the information within the time available and to make their views known.”

CPRE Oxfordshire supports a rooftops first approach to solar energy.

The Botley West solar farm is proposed to take up over 10km2, which would make it one of the largest solar farms in the world.  It would be located between the Blenheim Palace World Heritage Site and the city of Oxford, on productive farmland, mostly in the Oxford Green Belt and directly impacting the countryside on the doorstep of more than 11,000 local people.   

After this consultation, the next step will be submission of the proposals to the Planning Inspectorate.  This is because the development is so big that the decision will be taken out of the hands of local authorities, and it will be assessed as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project.