Letter: Time to act before vast areas are covered with solar panels

I am turning to your readers on a matter of great urgency for the countryside of South Shropshire. Our area is being targeted with planning applications for many solar farms and it is being done on a large scale in an area of great beauty. We are under attack. The facts are as follows:

The first application that is going to the planning committee on October 14 is situated near Whitton and Caynham, small villages near Ludlow in Shropshire.

So far 172 individuals have objected and with your help there could be more! This in a sparsely populated area.

If this first application goes through it will cover 43 acres, have 35,000 panels, five inverter sheds, a sub-station, 8ft high security fencing and 29 CCTV cameras all on land that rises 100ft.

Tourism which brings in a huge revenue because of the peace and tranquillity of the area would be affected greatly, and good agricultural land that at this moment is grazing cattle would be put out of action for 25 years!

I quote Gregory Barker when he said: "Solar is a genuinely exciting energy of the future, but not at any cost, not in any place ... not if it rides roughshod over the views of local communities."

I am not against solar: I have panels on my roof as do many other people in this area. I started as a NIMBY but now I feel incensed about the proposed damage to all the greenfields of our countryside, and angry about the people who are not aware of how terrible it will look. Don't be duped.

As my father, who is in his hundredth year, said: "The one thing that kept the soldiers morale up in the last war was the thought of our green countryside waiting for them when they got back to old Blighty."

If we allow the first one to be approved and happen it will give carte-blanche to all the others in the pipeline. You, the people, will be paying the green levy on your quarterly bill with these subsidies putting up to a possible third more in the forthcoming years on your utility bill and this goes to these profiteers, no benefit to us the public.

I am passionate about this county of Shropshire and this country and I know that many of your readers are too. Let's help to save the rolling hills of Shropshire and beyond and keep it for our grandchildren. Please object to the council now if you love Shropshire as much as I do. Time is running out.

Pamela Murray, Ludlow