Lime Down Solar Park – Update

CPRE totally oppose this application for a huge solar farm near Malmesbury.  It would be one of the biggest in the UK.  We shall be submitting comments throughout the process to the applicants and subsequently to the Planning Inspectorate.  We have already engaged with many people who are objecting to the proposal and are supporting Ros Savage MP who is fighting against it.

Lime Down Solar Park update.

CPRE totally oppose this application for a huge solar farm near Malmesbury.  It would be one of the biggest in the UK.

CPRE Wiltshire attended the start of the Examination process at one of the Open Floor Hearing Sessions in April, where we put forward our reasons for objecting to the proposal.  In summary what we said was:

“CPRE Wiltshire is not opposed to net zero. We support the transition to cleaner energy—but only when it is delivered with integrity, strategic foresight, and genuine respect for communities and landscapes.

We advocate for a balanced approach: one that protects food security, rural livelihoods, and the character of the Wiltshire countryside, while still enabling innovation in energy generation.

However, what we are currently witnessing is not balance”

Full text available on this link: Lime down consultation response

The Examination progressed during the summer with acceptance of further submissions on specific issues, further questions by the Examining Authority and further responses from engaged parties.

These included the Applicant, Wiltshire Council, Cotswold National Parks,  Environment Agency, Stop Lime Down campaign Group, Highway and Water authorities, Landscape consultants, landowners, local residents and covered  many specific issues dealt with by professional consultants.

Further Specific Hearing sessions, accompanied by written questions and responses,  have continued through June, July, August September ranging from  Transport, Water Management and Grid connection to Compulsory Acquisition and more detailed questions on Landscape, the Environment and long term effects.

There have been some changes agreed by the applicant.  Largely in technical detail, but in one case a review of an area, Field C9, and its subsequent removal from the proposal.

The sessions are now drawing to a close.

The application is going through a process called an NSIP – a Nationally Strategic Infrastructure Project.  This process, introduced in 2008 and strengthened in April 2024, following  government consultation in Autumn 2023, is designed to be more complicated and less available for democratic input.

Lime Down Solar Park is yet another proposal for generation of energy in north Wiltshire.  Wiltshire already makes a huge contribution to solar power generation. Of the 10 largest solar parks in England, 8 are in our county (Lyneham, Wroughton, Minety, Forest Gate, Leigh Delamere, Kemble, Studley, Snarlton); and there are a great many more just slightly smaller. The Council’s 2030 carbon neutral target for solar renewables is 590MW, which has already been exceeded (827MW – enough to power 500,000 homes is in production or planning.) We have 42 Operational Solar Farms with a further 12 under planning or construction, nearly all in the north of the County. They cover 3000 acres which is more than any other county in England.

This cumulative increase in sites could happen almost anywhere due to the present government approach to solar farms and the subsequent Council decisions which need to follow government guidance unless exceptional circumstances indicate otherwise.

It is not only the magnitude of numbers of arrays but the accompanying BESS (Battery Energy Storage Systems) units which are the essential part of solar farm developments. These BESS have the appearance of metal shipping containers with ventilation units for cooling, and are supported by ancillary infrastructure which include Inverter/Transformer stations, auxiliary transformers, all located within secure compounds surrounded by high weldmesh fence with CCTV security cameras.  Proximity of any dwelling would require a high acoustic fence.

They require to be situated close to an existing substation. These installations turn a rural area into an industrial one and satisfactory mitigation unproven as there are no examples of the outcome as yet.

Read more about this proposal here.

A campaign group “Stop Lime Down Solar Park” has been formed.  You can read about this and sign their petition here.