OPPOSITION to a 100-acre solar energy farm being proposed on agricultural land at Washford escalated this week as campaigners urged residents to protest to Somerset West and Taunton Council planners that the development would blight the area and drive away tourists.

They were backed by local MP Ian Liddell-Grainger who told the Free Press: "This is going to intrude massively into a relatively unspoiled part of West Somerset on a highly-visible site."

He added: "I feel very angry that farming families will be turned off land they have cared for and nurtured for so long."

The protests follow news of a full planning application, made public on Christmas Eve, by London-based firm Elgin Energy Esco Ltd, seeking to build the solar farm on arable farmland north of Washford owned by the Wyndham Estate and stretching as far east as Tropiquaria Zoo and north to the outskirts of Watchet.

At a meeting in Washford Memorial Hall, attended by more than 30 people, it was claimed that the development was ’completely inappropriate for the area’ and would be ’an eyesore seen from as far away as Staple Plain, West Quantoxhead and the Brendon Hills’.

The meeting heard from two Wyndham Estate tenant farmers - Richard Burnell of Parsonage Farm , Watchet, and Robert Dibble of Kentsford Farm, near the Mineral Line - who said they would both stand to lose at least 50 acres of arable land each if the project went ahead.

Mr Burnell said: "No-one is against solar energy but the overpowering scale of the proposed scheme is completely inappropriate for the area. We will lose good land and open countryside. The clock is ticking and we only have less than three weeks to put in objections."

Mr Dibble added that he would lose about a quarter of his arable land and it would be hard for the farm to remain viable.

Residents were urged to send written objections to Somerset West and Taunton Council planning committee which will make a decision on the application at a future meeting. The consultation period has been extended to three weeks from January 5.

On Monday, when Williton Parish Council discussed the planning application, councillors said they were concerned about the effect the development would have on tourism and agreed to a meeting on the site. It was also hoped to hold a public meeting before deciding on a course of action.

Protester Penny White told councillors that the solar structures would dominate the area. The solar farm would not provide any extra jobs for the area but could wreck the tourist industry.

"Tourists won’t stay around here, where there is such an eyesore, but will move onto somewhere like Porlock and Dunster, or on to Exmoor," she said.

Lloyd Morgan, owner of Shells Holiday Cottages complex at Washford Cross, told the meeting the solar farm would take away the view from his business and he feared for its future.

Old Cleeve Parish Council is also set to discuss the application at its meeting next Monday.

In a statement to planners, the developers said that careful siting of the solar panels and retained and enhanced trees and vegetation would greatly mitigate the effect on the landscape. Sheep could be grazed on the land under the panels and after decommissioning the site would revert to agriculture land.

They added that the benefits of the proposed development "will be substantial and will outweigh any harm, and as such, planning permission should be granted."

Mr Liddell-Grainger said that extreme weather caused by global warming would mean huge tracts of land would not produce the food they currently did. "This means that top quality farmland such as this is going to become an even more valuable resource in keeping the nation fed in future," he said.