On November 26th 2012 Teignbridge District Council planning committee voted to refuse planning permission for Inazin Solar's application to construct a 13.5 Ha solar photovoltaic "farm" on land owned by the Fulford Estate near Gold's Cross Hill, between Tedburn St. Mary and Cheriton Bishop. I presume the fact that I objected to that application, at the second time of asking, explains why I have just received a letter from Teignbridge DC which says (amongst other things) that:

More on Inazin Appeal Tedburn St Mary Solar Farm Planning Decision. Again!

On Wednesday afternoon South Hams District Council development management committee debated whether to give permission for the construction of the Totnes Community Wind Farm. They ultimately decided to follow the recommendation in their planning officer's report on the proposal, and refused such permission.  According to the council's decision notice:

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BBC Devon report today that:

A countryside group has raised concerns about Devon farmland being taken out of food production for solar farms.

The "countryside group" the BBC is referring to is in fact The Campaign to Protect Rural England. According to the BBC, Penny Mills from the CPRE has said that:

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According to the Teignbridge District Council planning web site Lightsource Renewable Energy have just withdrawn their application to construct a  54 acre, 10.7 MW solar PV farm between Dunchideock and Ide in Devon. The withdrawal notice reads as follows:

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The minutes of the meeting of the Teignbridge District Council planning committee held on November 26th have now been published. For some strange reason their coverage of my own contribution to those events is rather brief. It reads as follows:

More on Floods of Planning Poppycock in Teignbridge

In some good news for those who, like me, oppose large scale solar PV parks on what assorted planning regulations refer to as "our best and most versatile agricultural land", the Planning Inspectorate have dismissed Inazin Solar's appeal against the decision of Teignbridge District Council to refuse planning permission for the 40 acre Fulford Solar Park at Gold's Cross Hill near Tedburn St. Mary.  The inspector needed to make two site visits since he:

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Whilst it doesn't say as much on their web site just yet, Cornwall County Council have effectively approved the application from German developers Kronos Solar to construct the 25 MW Canworthy Solar Farm on 50 hectares of land at Maxworthy near Launceston.  Cornwall planning committee have approved the scheme, but delegated responsibility for dotting all the Is and crossing all the Ts on the conditions associated with the application to their planning officers. This will make it the larget solar PV park in Cornwall, and in the UK for that matter.

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After a fair few emails and phone calls my penultimate set of objections to the second coming of the proposed Fulford Solar Park at Gold's Cross Hill near Tedburn St. Mary finally made their way onto the Teignbridge DC planning website this afternoon. If you enjoy a bit of a giggle download the three documents posted on Friday 23rd November.

More on The Fulford Solar Kettle Gets Lost in Translation

Much earlier today I dropped Kasia off at Bristol Airport, en route to Warsaw. As I was walking back to the car park, it suddenly struck me that I'd had a request for advice concerning the planning application for a large scale solar PV park near Bristol Airport.  Since it was a beautifully crisp clear morning, and I had my smartphone on me, I thought I'd take a short detour on my way back to Devon, and take a few pictures of the site in question.  I fired up my very own map of the area on my phone, and zoomed in. That revealed a public footpath across the site, so I wandered off along that in the direction of Garleys Wood, snapping as I went.

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It has just come to my attention that a couple of weeks ago Westmill Solar Park near Watchfield in Wiltshire was finally acquired by a local co-operative. According to their press release:

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