Delight as bid for solar farm is thrown out

THE public gallery erupted in applause as planners rejected a solar farm bid amid fears the Severn Vale has become a "dumping ground" for development.

- CARMELO GARCIA

PACE Tribute Energy's plans for a 49.5 megawatt photovoltaic array on around 120 acres of fields some 400 yards from the River Severn in Epney were considered by Stroud District Council.

The scheme, near the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal and Stroudwater Navigation junction at Saul, included south facing solar arrays of up to 9.8ft tall with some inverters placed in between them and a substation and grid connection compound.

Fretherne with Saul, Longney and Epney, Frampton-on-Severn and Arlingham parish councils all objected to the proposals along with the county highways department, the South Cotswold Ramblers and more than 200 residents.

District council officials told the development control committee that they recommended refusal amid concerns over the grid connection compound which would introduce an “alien, overbearing and unsympathetic feature” in the Severn Vale grazing marshland landscape.