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.