Solar farm approved on 'the last green fields'

Plans for a solar farm near St Austell which were refused by Cornwall Council last year have been approved on appeal.

Anesco Ltd, an energy infrastructure firm, applied to build the solar farm on 25.5 hectares (63 acres) of land at Menear Farm, between St Austell and Treverbyn parish in April.

Planning inspector Shaun Harrington said the proposal "would not cause significant adverse impacts on the local environment".

But Matt Luke, who was then the Cornwall councillor for the area, said the plans were "the wrong thing on the wrong site for numerous reasons" including the site being "the last green fields in the landscape".

Luke said: "The visual impact is far wider than any of you can imagine, this land can be seen from the whole of St Austell Bay.

"These are the last green fields in the landscape – the rest has been built on.

"It will be visible in the landscape. To say it won't is absolute nonsense."

Planning inspector Harrington approved the solar farm following a hearing in January after Anesco appealed Cornwall Council's unanimous decision to refuse the application.

He noted there would be some harm to the landscape but it was outweighed by the benefits, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

In his decision report, released on 13 February, he said due to "the nationwide critical need for renewable energy facilities, [the] benefits are substantial and attract significant weight in favour of the proposal".

Councillor James Mustoe, a Conservative councillor whose division contains St Austell Bay, said: "I'm really sorry to see the Bristol-based planning inspector decide, on behalf of the Secretary of State, to overturn Cornwall Council's decision to refuse an industrial scale solar farm on green field land in Carlyon parish."

Anesco said the new solar farm would operate for 40 years and generate enough electricity to power 3,880 homes.

Tom Clements, project lead for Anesco, told the planning committee in policy terms there were no significant landscape effects and the site was naturally well screened.

There would be native trees, hedgerows and other planting, he added.

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