The 3,200-acre Botley West Solar Farm, which is one of Europe’s largest, would be built on three sites at Woodstock, Kidlington and to the west of Botley mainly on Blenheim Estate land.
Developers say it could deliver 840 megawatts (MW) of power to the National Grid.
The proposals were submitted in December and the deadline for making comments and lodging details on the Planning Inspector’s (PINS) website to potentially speak at the examination is February 27.
Preparations will then begin for a full examination, which could take up to six months, followed by three months for the recommendation to be written up.
READ MORE: Live updates – traffic delays following incident at roundabout
There will then be another three months for Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, to make the final decision which developers hope will be in late 2025.
The Forever Fields book of paintings and drawings, photographs and film, poetry, pottery and sculpture was launched at the Bartholomew Room in Eynsham.
Organiser Anthony Thompson said: “We had a massively successful exhibition in November 2023 with 160 artworks and 100 artists plus and we promised to archive it so that if Botley West Solar Farm went ahead in 42 years’ time the fields could be turned back to how they are now.
“The idea is to give copies to the county council and district councils who are affected to put in their archive for the future.
“We’ve got some wonderful artworks captured in this archive and even if the worst happens and this silly scheme got built at least we’ve got an archive of what it used to look like.”
He added: “It’s not a campaign, it’s not raising funds for Stop Botley West, we are selling the books at cost – we are not looking to make any money out of it.
“It’s just about the community expressing its feelings in a positive and creative way.
“There is definitely a sense of potential loss and resentment at the lack of democracy, at not being heard.
“Most people who did pieces for this exhibition do want to see solar in the local area but they are just concerned this proposal is too big a scale and will cancel out our green fields for five miles around.
READ MORE: Police warning over increase in anti-social-behaviour
“We want solar and I think with better collaboration with the landowner and developer we could. But neither party seem to want to listen and that’s the sadness here.”
Mark Owen-Lloyd, director of Photovolt, said: “I was pleased to be able see the beautiful work of these talented artists at the exhibition for myself.
“We have taken significant measures to mitigate the visual impact of the project, lowering the height of panels, removing panels entirely from a third of the site, increasing the buffer zone to residences and building and repairing miles of hedgerow.”
PVDP said its consultation was agreed in full with the local planning authorities and completely in line with all relevant regulations and principles as set out by the Planning Act 2008.
–
Help support trusted local news
Sign up for a digital subscription now: https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/subscribe/
As a digital subscriber you will get:
- Unlimited access to the Oxford Mail website
- Advert-light access
- Reader rewards
- Full access to our app
This post was originally published on here
