RESIDENTS of Washford are being asked to fight the building of a proposed 132-acre solar farm on the edge of the village unless the developers agree to finance footpaths and road improvements for the village’s notorious A39 bottleneck.

London-based Elgin Energy is proposing to set up a massive solar array in fields north of Washford – land owned by the Wyndham Estate - and will reveal plans for the development at Washford Village Hall from 4 to 8pm on Thursday (May 10).

The 25MW solar farm would spread across fields alongside the Washford River towards Watchet and eastwards as far as Tropiquaria Zoo.

Residents are also concerned that the solar panels, which have a minimum life of 30 years, would lie across the route designated for an eventual Williton-Carhampton by-pass, which they believe could be needed in the event of the collapse of the cliff-top road outside Watchet.

A campaign co-ordinated by Old Cleeve parish councillor Heather Beaver aims to visit every house in Washford with a petition demanding a bypass and pavements for Washford and Bilbrook as a condition for the solar development being built.

Campaigner Mrs Jan Chadwick, who with her husband David runs the Monkscider House B and B on the eastern edge of the village, overlooking the site of the proposed solar farm, said: “If nothing is done to improve the appalling traffic conditions in the village we will certainly fight the application.

“We are prepared to take the petition to Downing Street if needs be.

“People in the village are really angry about this and we urge everyone to go to the consultation and make it clear to the developers that we expect them to do something about a traffic situation that their project is only going to make worse.

“Elgin Energy have said that they will provide community benefit fund for the area and they must be made to understand that improving the traffic situation is an absolute priority.

“Parents in the village are taking their children a few hundred yards to school by car because they dare not let them walk along the road.”

David Chadwick said that a route to divert traffic from the village could take in part of the solar farm land.

“Washford’s traffic issues can’t be resolved without some sort of local bypass and the same applies to Bilbrook, which suffers similar problems.

“We don’t like the idea of the valley being blighted by acres of solar panels, but we are prepared to make a compromise with Elgin Energy so that they can help us install a bypass through their property which would take the heavy traffic from the A39.”

He said he hoped that as many people as possible would attend the presentation, including Watchet residents, who would benefit from any future improved link-road access to the town.

In a letter to Washford residents, Elgin Energy’s senior manager David Meehan said the project would generate enough renewable energy to power 7,500 homes a year.

He said that the May 10 consultation would “represent an opportunity for all parties to actively engage, comment and shape the evolution of this project”.

A full range of the proposals will be on display and members of the project team will discuss the development and answer questions.

Elgin Energy said that after a programme of consultation, outline planning permission would be sought from West Somerset Council.

If successful, the solar array could be assembled in just 17 weeks.

Local MP Ian Liddell-Grainger told the Free Press he fully supported the Washford campaign and hoped that there would be opposition to the scheme when it came before the planning committee.

“The high ground to the north of Washford is already covered in a large solar array, and to see another 130 acres disappear under panels would represent an unsustainable impact on an area of high landscape value.

“More specifically, this solar farm would swallow up a huge swathe of good-quality agricultural land and this constant nibbling away of our most valuable resource can’t be right when we are encouraging British farmers to pull out all the stops on food production.

“There is also the matter of a new route from Watchet to Washford that will be needed when the cliff at the top of West Street, Watchet, collapses, which is now an inevitability.”

Full report in the Free Press