Plans for huge Kent solar farm rejected

Plans for a solar park in Postling have been rejected

Plans for a solar farm in Kent which would have powered 5,000 homes have been rejected over fears it would visually harm the landscape.

Folkestone and Hythe District Council (FHDC) refused RNA Energy's proposals for a 66-acre (27 hectares) solar array the size of 30 football pitches at a meeting on Tuesday.

The site at Pent Farm in Postling is within the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (ANOB) and would have featured three-metre (nine ft) high panels with sheep grazing beneath them.

Farm manager Debbie Reynolds said the project would be a "blueprint" for multi-functional farmland that would deliver "biodiversity, renewable energy, energy security and profitable farm business".

A 66-acre (27 hectares) solar farm was proposed across three arable fields in Postling, Kent

The plans included a number of biodiveristy improvements, including bird and bat boxes, new woodland, new ponds, foraging ditches, hedgerows, wildflower grasslands and reed beds to enhance water quality.

However Frank Hobbs, of Postling Parish Council, said it "would stick out like a sore thumb from various vantage points on the North Downs".

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, he said: "This application site is not in the right place.”

The planning committee accepted officers' recommendations to reject the scheme, with seven votes to four and no abstentions.