The proposed solar farm at Washford has stirred up a lot of local opinion that I have been following with interest.

I attended the consultation display in Washford and formed my own personal opinion that it is the right thing but too big and in the wrong place.

It will have a significant visual impact whilst occupying productive agricultural land and disrupting wildlife habitats.

Economically it provides little to us locally whilst fragmenting existing farms and putting their viability in jeopardy.

With that said, I am absolutely aghast at the growing lobby for a bypass across the same site to link Williton to the A39 at Withycombe.

As reported in your paper last week it was 25 years ago that the proposed bypass was scrapped. The cost a quarter of a century ago was anticipated to be £30 million.

Apart from the vastly increased cost of such a bypass in today’s terms, it seems that those lobbying for the scheme to be resurrected have been completely ignoring all of the arguments that they have been putting forward to oppose the solar farm.

Such a bypass would be far more visually intrusive and visible over a greater area.

It would require a cutting through Cleeve Hill and a flyover across the West Somerset Railway which is already on a high embankment.

It would permanently destroy a greater acreage of productive farmland - not only at Washford but through Binham and Marshwood Farms to the A39.

In addition to the proposed site of the solar farm, the additional farms and communities along the whole route would also be fragmented, with a consequent financial impact. The amount of wildlife habitat that would be totally destroyed would be massive.

I fail to understand why there are such calls for the area to be urbanised and our countryside and heritage destroyed.

Any new major roads will do nothing but increase traffic flow, bring more pollution and encourage more development and urbanisation along its entire route.

May I suggest that any bypass supporters should take a long hard look at the facts and think again before pursuing such a folly?

G M Williams, Old Cleeve.