Decision due on controversial plans to build solar farm in Horsham

  • WATCH: ITV News Meridian's Kit Bradshaw full report

Plans to cover more than 100 acres of Sussex farmland with 75-thousand solar panels are dividing opinion ahead of a crucial council meeting tonight (May 21).

The company behind Cobwood Solar Farm, near Horsham, say it would generate enough electricity to power 16,000 homes a year, and be able to provide renewable energy to the National Grid for an estimated 40 years.

Opponents say the fields in Cowfold are currently used to grow valuable corn, wheat and oats which are vital to sustain one of the area’s last remaining dairy farms.

Low Carbon UK says it has amended its plans to address people’s concerns.

The site, five miles south of Horsham, sits between the villages of West Grinstead and Cowfold Credit: ITV News Meridian

Local resident and campaigner, Irene Penny, is hoping local councillors deny planning permission for the solar farm on the fields behind her home in West Grinstead.

She said: “I'm not just being a NIMBY, and I know that's the accusation that will be thrown at us, you know, but at the same time, we need this land.

"This particular land all around here is used by the farmer, tenant farmer I should say, for growing crops to feed his cows throughout the winter. And he's one of the last dairy farmers in the area.”

The site - five miles south of Horsham - sits between the villages of West Grinstead and Cowfold.

  • The developer, Low Carbon, was behind this similar scheme in Buckinghamshire

Ed Perrin, Development Director at Low Carbon said: “That renewable energy will provide a CO2 saving of around 10,000 tons of CO2 per year and also provide affordable power to drive down electricity bills.

"Alongside the Renewable Energy Project, we are proposing a lot of new planting.

"So planting in the form of trees, hedgerows, wildflower meadows, which together will deliver a biodiversity net gain of around 65 percent.”

Construction lorries would pass by Andrew Stonestreet’s house, with many of the neighbouring fields earmarked for solar panels.

  • Andrew Stonestreet, local resident and campaigner

Mr Stonestreet said; “We’ve got solar panels on our roof and that's really where solar panels should be.

"They should be put on roof space, not on greenfield sites. You know, these fields are important.

"It’s not food for us to consume, but it is food for animals to consume. And that produces either meat or, in this case, milk.

A number of residents have written to the local MP, Andrew Griffith, to raise their concerns.

Mr Griffith said: “We've got to have food sustainability in this country. We've got to grow more of what we consume.

"That itself helps the climate, it helps the environment, and that starts local. So the last thing we should be doing is putting beaker foil like solar onto the green fields of West Sussex when there's lots of other places that we could put solar on top of rooftops, in car parks, for example.”

Neighbours will be making representations at the planning committee in Horsham this evening.

Council officers have recommended the scheme be approved and if councillors agree, building work could start within twelve months.

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