Protest groups unite over Shropshire solar farm plans

Save South Shropshire Countryside has been formed by the merging of two different groups of objectors, one against a solar farm at Acton Burnell, and the other against a site near Ludlow – and they are hoping to bring the Save Our Green Hills group from the Clee Hills on board too.

Campaign leaders say they have the same concerns in common – the rush of planning applications for large-scale solar farms in the countryside, and the lack of awareness of many residents of the full extent of the plans.

But landowner Rupert Acton, who is behind one of the applications for a 54-acre solar farm at Henley Bank near Acton Scott, said everything possible had been done to inform people.

Campaigner John Philips, who called for a public debate with Mr Acton, said before stories appeared in the Shropshire Star many people in the wider area seemed to have no knowledge of it. "Why was the notice of the public consultation not more widely circulated, and then a once-only event?" he asked.

He said one resident had only heard about it "down the pub" and assumed it wouldn't affect him – but once he went online he was appalled at the scale of the site.

"What happens if you do not have easy access to the internet and the only hard copy of the application is held in the landlord's house, as happened here in Acton Scott?" Mr Phillips asked.

But Mr Acton said: "We've done as much as we possibly can to inform people. We put an advert in the Shropshire Star, the parish magazine and on the village notice board. There was an exhibition at the village hall. All the plans were again exhibited at the Acton Scott Parish Meeting." He added that nobody had contacted him directly about a face-to-face debate.

Peter van Duijvenvoorde, who is objecting to a 43-acre, 35,000 panel "solar park" between Caynham and Whitton, near Ludlow, said he was "completely in agreement" with Mr Phillips' concerns, and the two groups of campaigners had agreed to join forces.

"The first that local people knew about the proposal (at Whitton) was a short letter dated June 13. The letter was distributed to houses within 650 metres of the centre of the development encompassing approximately 10 residences. The remaining inhabitants of Caynham, Whitton and Wootton were left in the dark."

He said the next they knew was a letter from Shropshire Council planners, less than a month later, stating residents had 21 days to object to a full planning application that had been made, at a time when many were away on holiday.

No-one at agents for the Whitton development, Roger Parry and Partners, was available for comment at time of going to press.