Parish Council Meeting: 9th December 2014 - 7pm

As a Neighbouring Parish, the Parish council have been asked to consider this proposal for Stonehill Farm and to give a recommendation accordingly.

This will be considered at the next Planning Meeting on 9th December in the Halberton Village Hall starting at 7.00pm.

It  is again a proposed solar park, on at least part grade 1 farmland, which is against both national and local planning policy and will be clearly seen from the area of Five Bridges in our Parish.

New Solar Site - Stonehill Farm

In case you do not know, the planning application for a solar site
at Stonehill Farm has been modified and re-submitted. 

If approved, this would be a very large site, with about 22000 
panels partly on what appears to be Grade 1 land.

The reference number at MDDC is 14/01949/MFUL. 

If this application is successful it could set a precedent 
for other applications. Below is a link to a recent article 
in the Gazette

Any letter regarding this application needs to be with Mid Devon 
District Council (MDDC) Planning Department by 16th December.

Open letter from Mike Bull - Remain Resolute!

Hello,

Although I am some distance away from Ash Thomas now I have still been being active over the solar panel planning application.  I have had a lot of contact with other key players so the refusal of permission has came as no surprise to me.  I have been totally expectant of it and was aware that it would very probably happen by the end of last week.

Other things continue.  The applicants have made an approach to Halberton Parish Council which I am following up.  I fully expect to be writing to their Clerk very soon and I intend to copy that letter to you in due course.

I had heard a rumour that this second application might well have been withdrawn and a new one for just 8 acres re-submitted but in the end that did not happen.  I am pleased about that.  However, everyone must work on the thought basis that the applicants will appeal the refusal of this recent second application.  They may not do that but we should assume that they will.  We must all be vigilant and determined!  There should be no weakening at all.  They try to grind communities down and Ash Thomas will be the loser of we do not maintain determination.

If there is an appeal then everyone must continue with their stuff, write to resist the appeal and remain determined and consistent.  Any weakening will just play into the hands of the appellants.

However, what may now happen is that the developers will try yet again with a much smaller application.  This is, I think, more likely.  Here again determination must prevail.  If the community does not maintain its objections - and especially on the Grade 1 land argument - then the case could be lost in the end.  I remain convinced that IF ASH THOMAS REMAINS RESOLUTE - the entire war will be won and no solar panel development will get an approval on the Grade 1 land.  If there is weakening then MDDC might also weaken.  They must not be allowed to do that.
I will continue to fight this cause alongside everyone in the Ash Thomas community even though I now live 250 miles away.  This is so important!  And I will keep you informed about what I continue to learn.

Best wishes to all
Mike Bull

Refused Again

Planning Permission has been refused

MDDC have once again refused permission for the building of the industrial solar site for the same reasons as before:

1. inappropriate use of Grade 1 (BMV) land
2. visual impact
3. impact on St Andrews Church, Halberton

The full 16 page document is available on the MDDC website http://docs.middevon.gov.uk/pap/index.asp?caseref=14/00889/MFUL  It is the currently untitled pdf document with the received date of 29/08/14 listed under OFR - OFFICER REPORT

It remains to be seen if a second appeal will be launched.

A new 'must read' - campaigners call for refusal

Two local campaigners, Dr Mike Browne and Mr Phillip Bratby have written to the MDDC to object to the proposed development in a highly detailed and well presented case. The full details are published on this website on the page Detailed Objections

In conclusion, they write as follows:

The proposed solar farm conflicts with National Policy, with the UK Solar PV Strategy and with four policies of the Mid Devon Local Plan.  

The benefits of the proposal have been incorrectly given by the applicant, but in any case, with there being no need for the proposal, any benefits would be insignificant, would carry very little weight in the planning balance and would not outweigh the significant adverse impacts.  

Mid Devon District Council should therefore refuse the application.

Where are all the Sheep?: Reality vs Marketing

Weed covered solar farm in Wiltshire

Sheep. According to DEFRA there are about 36 million sheep in the UK. That means that there is about one sheep for every two people! So where are they all? and why arn't we literally tripping over them?

The simple truth is because they are farmed on the low grade land across the country. Sheep inhabit the Welsh Mountains, the Lake District, Dartmoor and Exmoor, The Yorkshire Moors and Yorkshire Dales. They are the creatures of the wild open places.

Monitoring the countryside: People must not go where the weeds now grow

That is why it is very unlikely that you will ever find them fenced in to an industrial solar site, where the grass will struggle to grow in the shade and the exposed cable routes would provide an ever present danger to any livestock.

Print your own poster

You can help draw attention to the plight of Ash Thomas by printing off and displaying the simple message 'SAY NO TO SOLAR PARK'

Just go to the SAY NO TO SOLAR PARK tab on this website and print it off and put it in your window, car, hedge, gate etc

Letter to the Halberton Parish Council

Mike Bull wrote to the Halberton Parish Council on behalf of the community to express our continued objections to the proposed development. A copy of the letter is published on this website, on the tab called Letter to Halberton Parish Council

Community Team delivers hundreds of leaflets

Leaflets have now been delivered to hundreds of homes throughout the local area surrounding the proposed solar site.

A copy of the full text of the leaflet can be seen on the Leaflet tab at the top of this page.

It was a huge task and our thanks go out to every one who helped; from writing to proof reading and printing to final delivery.

Next Parish Planning Meeting Confirmed

The next Halberton PC Planning Committee meeting will be on 

Tuesday 24 June 2014 

at 7.30 

in the 

Jubilee Room in the Halberton Village Hall 

Even the cat came!

Today’s meeting was very well attended, even the village cat came!

The key points were:

DON'T BE DOWN HEARTED: Don't be put off or feel down hearted by this re-submission. It was to be expected.

It is VERY IMPORTANT to let both Halberton Parish and the Mid Devon District Council know if you object.

WRITE AGAIN: You may have written letters to the council before but if you still object, you must write again. Your previous letters will not be considered as a part of this application, so its vital that you write again. Do it in your own words and let them know what you think.

Next Meeting: Friday 13th June at 7 o'clock

The next meeting will be held in 
Ash Thomas 
Village Hall 

on 
Friday 13th June
2014 at 7 o'clock

Griff Rhys Jones agrees: Don't Build on Good Land

Picture from the BBC website

The government has rejected a plan for a 43,000-panel solar farm near Ipswich, following a campaign by opponents, who included comedian Griff Rhys Jones.

Babergh District Council refused to grant planning permission last year for the £25m project at Valley Farm, Tattingstone, Suffolk

Developers Hive Energy appealed to the government's Planning Inspectorate, which has now also turned it down.

Campaigners said the farm was out of place in a "special landscape".
Mr Griff Rhys Jones said: "This is not a victory for climate change deniers, it is a victory for sensible planning of what remains an urgent requirement.

"The inquiry simply said 'don't build solar farms on beautiful land' and we should all agree with that."

Read the full story here

Planning Details Published - 14/00889/MFUL

 

The new plans are now on the MDDC site with the new number 14/00889/MFUL at:

 

http://docs.middevon.govuk/pap/index.asp?caseref=14/00889/MFUL

 

The dates are already on the MDDC website and can be seen at 

http://planning.middevon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=dates&keyVal=N6P7J9KS02T00

The deadline for submissions is the  27th June. 

Re-submission of the Planning Application

Re-submission of the Planning Application


PRE- APPLICATION CONSULTATION

The planning consultancy, Alder King, have today written to a number of residents, on behalf of British Solar Renewables Ltd (formerly Solar Power Generation Limited) to inform them that a re-submission of refused planning application 12/01664/MFUL for a proposed solar park is being prepared and will shortly be submitted to Mid Devon District Council.

The letter states "as we believe the public's view on the proposal in principle is well known we will not be holding a specific public consultation event."

The letter came with a leaflet that makes a number of claims together with a  master plan of the area, as shown below.

Further information will be posted on this website as and when it becomes known.