Councils to work together to decide on solar farm

Torridge District Council and North Devon Council have agreed to work together to determine the application

Two council planning committees will work together to decide on an application for what is believed to be the largest ever solar farm application in northern Devon.

Torridge District Council and North Devon Council will join forces as the application straddles the two districts. A planning application has been submitted but not yet validated and so is not currently in the public domain.

Torridge would have all nine of its planning committee members on the case and there would be nine of the 12 members of North Devon's, including a chairperson, who could make a casting vote.

This was considered the best way forward given that 60% of the application site is in north Devon and 40% in Torridge.

Councillor David Brenton expressed concern that this system could result in Torridge's vote being "suppressed" but councillor Bob Hicks said he didn't see any issues, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) reported.

"As the alternating chairman of the joint planning policy committee working directly with North Devon, we get on extremely well," he said.

Councillor Chris Leather said: "It makes sense as we are all singing from the same local plan anyway."

He said he believed this to be largest solar farm application the two areas had ever seen.

In 2023, the CPRE produced a map to show that nine of the largest solar farms, more than 100 acres, in Devon were in the local authority areas of Torridge, North Devon, Mid Devon and East Devon.