Public inquiry into huge solar farm to begin

A public inquiry into plans to build one of Europe's largest solar farms begins on Tuesday.

For the next three days, open floor hearings will take place as part of the Planning Inspectorate's examination of the controversial Botley West scheme in Oxford.

The £800m farm would cover 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres) of countryside north of Woodstock, west of Kidlington and west of Botley.

It is considered a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project, meaning the application must be considered by the government, not local councils.

The plan has split opinion, with developer Photo Vault Development Partners saying large-scale solar energy is crucial to meet the UK's climate targets, while local politicians and opponents calling it a cause of concern.

Campaigners also want Blenheim Palace, which owns 90% of the land, to use its influence to press for 2% of the project's annual revenue, instead of the proposed 0.2%, to be allocated to benefit local communities.

Blenheim Palace said: "As we lend our land to this project we do so knowing it could deliver enough clean energy to power 330,000 homes, helping Oxfordshire's homes to be self-sufficient, whilst supporting our collective declarations in the battle against the climate emergency."

It added it knew the arguments both for and against the development and it did not think those were "exclusive of one another".

Social enterprise The Low Carbon Hub has been running the Make Botley West Solar Farm Fair campaign, which is focused on ensuring the project delivers "real and lasting benefits to the local communities that will host it".

It said it had estimated in the first year 2% of revenue would create £840,000 in community benefit, but it added until the project was up and running it was "very difficult" to know the precise figure.

"Our proposed 2% of revenue model ensures communities receive a fair and proportionate benefit, one that is tied to the actual performance of the project – if that does well, then communities also benefit," it said.

West Oxfordshire District Council has previously said the scale of the solar park had "potential for significant and widespread positive and negative impacts".

As part of the planning process, relevant parties, including the local authorities in which the development sits, can submit their response to the plans.

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