Planning permission has been granted for the construction of a 50MW solar farm in Nottinghamshire, England, following an appeal.
Pegasus Group provided expert landscape, heritage and planning witness on behalf of client JBM Solar Projects 6 Limited at the public inquiry into Newark & Sherwood District Council’s refusal of the application.
The scheme is for a 49.9MW solar farm on a site of approximately 100 hectares, north of Halloughton.
Pegasus Group executive director Paul Burrell said: “This is an excellent result for our client JBM Solar Projects 6 Limited, and a real Pegasus Group team effort.
“We provided landscape, heritage and planning witness as well as full appeal project management. And as a jointly resourced office project, with our Cirencester office leading on planning and landscape while colleagues from the Leeds office led on heritage, it demonstrates how we effectively pool resources in order to provide a winning service.”
Burrell said that in his report the Inspector had made some interesting observations on agricultural land and the temporary loss of food production and food security, with weight to be given to the temporary nature of the development, albeit the 40 years sought would be longer than a generation.
He said that the inspector concluded, in terms of the planning balance, that while there would be some localised harm to landscape character and some visual harm in conflict with the relevant development plan policies, the imperative to tackle climate change as recognised in legislation and energy policy, and the very significant benefits of the scheme, clearly and decisively outweighed the limited harm.
Likewise, in terms of heritage, while recognising the great weight required to be attached to the conservation of heritage assets, he considered that the imperative to tackle climate change, as recognised in legislation and energy policy, and the very significant benefits of the scheme, “clearly and decisively” outweighed the temporary and less than substantial harm to the heritage assets involved.
In allowing the appeal, permission is granted for the construction of solar farm and battery stations together with all associated works, equipment, and necessary infrastructure.