Griff Rhys Jones: £20m countryside solar farm ‘cack-handed and opportunistic’
Its the scale not the principle. We did some work in Cornwall last year and there is a lively debate in Lincolnshire about alternative forms of power generation, in my experience it is the move to bigger and more “industrial” approaches which alienates people. This has the unintended consequence of making more appropriate scale developments unpopular. This article about Griff Rhys Jones and his Suffolk experience makes the point. It tells us: Mr Rhys Jones said that the scheme, which would be Britain’s largest solar farm and power between 4,500 and 5,400 homes, was part of a “mad series” of schemes by the Government and accused ministers of “riding roughshod” over localism. Plans for the 94-acre site in Suffolk have been submitted to Babergh District Council and are under discussion by its planning committee. Hive Energy, the company behind the scheme, said it would help meet the Government’s targets on renewable energy and produce the equivalent power of 12 wind farms. But Mr Rhys Jones, who lives two miles away from the proposed site in Tattingstone, in Suffolk, said: “It could never be called part of a greener future for the countryside. “It is part of a mad series of schemes introduced by a Government struggling with an energy policy. The Government is riding roughshod over localism. “Filling an area the size of 50 football pitches – which is open to view on three sides from public rights of way – with 72,000 three-metre high plastic panels simply cannot be a sensible way to use our best-quality agricultural land in a highly-attractive landscape.