Support for solar panels on Shropshire farmland

With multiple large solar farms in south Shropshire coming back under the spotlight, there is more at stake than simply whether panels are nice to look at, David Gibbon, co-ordinator of South Shropshire Green Party has said – including farmers' livelihoods.

In the past fortnight a 4.53MW solar farm at Neen Sollars, near Cleobury Mortimer, has been given the go-ahead by a government planning inspector, despite Shropshire Council refusing it permission, while another inspector refused permission to an 8.6MW solar farm at Whitton, near Ludlow.

On Tuesday an appeal hearing will start over refused plans for another large scale solar farm on the Henley Hall estate at Squirrel Lane, and in the same week a site visit is expected at Whitton for a second appeal over a second application at the site.

Anti solar-farm campaigners, who were relieved after five large-scale developments in south Shropshire were one by one refused by Shropshire Council over the past 18 months, have expressed alarm and concern that some of those decisions are now being overturned.

But Mr Gibbon, who is also a member of green group Stretton Climate Care, said not everybody is against the solar farms, and too much had been made of what came down to a matter of taste.

He said Shropshire in particular had a lot of small farms which needed some kind of extra income to survive when facing challenges such as the falling prices of lamb and milk. He said: "It's not just about aesthetic appearances in the landscape.

"Solar power is something that adds to a farmers income, particularly small farmers who have relatively few options.

"It allows them to diversify which is particularly important in our area where livestock is the only option – and you can continue grazing with solar panels," he said.

"I admit there are people who don't like the look of them.

"People often don't like anything that sticks out in the natural landscape and there has been a lot of this historically.

"I'd imagine that a railway viaduct across a beautiful valley might have been the cause of tremendous opposition as they were a sign of industrialisation in a rural area."

But whether such things were pleasing to the eye or not was a matter of opinion, he said, and there were other important matters to take into consideration.

"Renewables are pushing ahead in other countries, and we will be missing out commercially," he said.

"I have a son over in Germany who follows things there and solar power is seeing a massive investment – and in Africa and Australia too people are switching over from fossil fuels as the cost of these things is dropping dramatically."