Residents of Hutton Roof and the surrounding area this week voiced their objections to plans for a massive solar farm near the village.
The village hall was the venue on Tuesday for a drop-in session organised by Noventum Power — acting for landowner Lord Inglewood — who wants to build the solar farm on a nearby site called High Rigg, with an area of well over 120 acres. The company says it ran the session to give out information and gauge opinion before submitting a formal planning application to Westmorland and Furness Council.
The proposed solar farm would consist of south-facing solar PV panels mounted on racks and arranged in rows, with each a maximum of 3m from the ground. It would have a capacity of 30MW — enough to power 14,500 homes. Also on the site would be inverter cabinets, a substation, control room, perimeter deer fencing and infrared CCTV.
The drop-in session ran from 4pm-7pm and attracted a healthy early influx of local people, none of whom appeared to support the proposal.
One of those present was Rodney Murray, from Calthwaite, who was there to learn details of the plan but did not believe it was a good thing. “This would take up a big area of good agricultural land,” he said. “It seems ridiculous they can’t use a brown field site, like the roofing of warehouses. There are also better places nearby.”
He also expressed doubts over Noventum’s claim that the development would result in biodiversity net gain, saying: “They’ll plant a few hundred trees which will all die — it’s happened with other developments.”
Carol Mavin, who lives at Hutton End about a mile from the site, described the plan as a “disgrace” and expressed the view that the country needs more food, not solar panels.
“This is the wrong place — it’s good land,” she said. “This a a very dominant site and we want to know why they want to plonk it here. Nobody I’ve spoken to has thought it’s a good idea.” Wendy Storey expressed similar views, and also said there seemed to be very little benefit to the local community in the proposals.
According to Shaun Long, a member of the neighbouring Hesket Parish Council, northern England is the wrong area for solar power, receiving much less sunlight than other parts of the world. He questioned whether, given this fact, the solar farm would be self-supporting financially, and remarked that he did not want to support it through subsidies taken from taxation.
He said: “This will be an eyesore and visible for miles, including from the northern fells. It’s also a very exposed site — the panels would be three metres from the ground and what happens when there are winds of 70-80mph?”
The issue was also discussed at a meeting of Skelton Parish Council on Tuesday evening, with local residents again expressing their objections. However, the authority will not be able to submit its views on the scheme until after a formal planning application has been submitted to Westmorland and Furness Council.
