Cherwell refuses not one, but two solar farms, following impassioned reasoning from locals.

Last week, Cherwell District Council’s Planning Committee refused two solar farms: one proposed for the middle of Otmoor on the Oxfordshire Green Belt, the other on open countryside at Godington, a tiny village near Stratton Audley. In both cases the council’s planning officers had recommended approval.

Local people spoke passionately about the environmental value of the countryside, the blight the development would cause, and the vital food production which would be lost. Michael Tyce of CPRE Oxfordshire told the committee that, according to the Oxfordshire Councils own adopted strategy ‘Pathways to a Zero Carbon Oxfordshire’, only 1% of Oxfordshire was needed for solar energy. “On that basis, sites as valuable as these, one of which is in the Oxfordshire Green Belt, should not be sacrificed. Instead, solar panels should be on domestic and industrial roofs where the electricity is needed and doing no harm, and not on green fields at all”.

The committee went on to refuse the applications by a majority on the basis that in each case the harm to the local landscape and environment outweighed the benefit of solar energy on sites such as these.

We applaud this decision and hope this reflects a move to protect our green belt and the wider countryside.