Plans to build a solar farm which will generate enough energy to power some 4,500 homes for a year have been approved by Horsham District Council.
The application for land north of Huddlestone Farm, Steyning, was given the thumbs-up during a meeting of the planning committee on Tuesday (October 18).
A similar application was refused in 2014 but councillors recognised that the world had changed an awful lot in the time since, with the need to be energy self-reliant never higher.
Roger Noel (Con, Bramber, Upper Beeding & Woodmancote) said: “What has changed in the last eight years is public attitudes towards renewable energy – and the realisation that continued use of fossil fuels will contribute to the eventual destruction of this planet.”
The application from Bolney Green Limited will see just over 27 hectares of panels set up on 42 hectares of land across two fields.
The panels will be three metres high at their highest point and two metres above the ground to allow animals to continue grazing.
Known as tracker panels, they will tilt to follow the sun.
The array will generate some 18MW of renewable energy which will be transferred to the National Grid.
They will take seven months to build and will be decommissioned after 40 years.
The council received more than 100 letters of support for the plans, with reasons including the need to move away from using fossil fuels, the environmental benefits outweighing the impact on the landscape, and the need to reduce reliance on Russian oil.
The latter was a view shared by John Blackall (Con, West Chiltington, Thakeham & Ashington), who made his feelings perfectly clear.
He said: “This unholy alliance of Putin and Saudi Arabia holding us to ransom is only going to be enhanced unless we produce more energy ourselves.”
There were 21 letters of objection to the plans.
The meeting heard from Rodway Planning Consultancy, which represented a group of residents who live close to the site.
They felt the panels would have a severe impact on the landscape and said the array would be ‘highly intrusive and damaging to the rural scene’, even with the planned landscaping work included with the application.
Other objectors raised concerns about noise – essentially the low hum from the motors as they turn the panels to face the sun.
The committee, though, supported the plans by 11 votes to zero with one abstention.
To view the application, log on to public-access.horsham.gov.uk and search for DC/22/0100.
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