APPROVAL of controversial plans for a massive solar farm on agricultural land near Tropiquaria, Washford Cross, has been attacked as ‘corporate greed’.

The criticism came from Ian Liddell-Grainger, who was West Somerset’s MP and is now a General Election candidate for the new Tiverton and Minehead constituency.

Mr Liddell-Grainger was ‘deeply disappointed’ Elgin Energy was being allowed to create a 100-acre solar park on farmland owned by the Wyndham Estate.

Somerset Council refused the Elgin plans last year but the company won on appeal to a Government planning inspector.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said the installation would stand ‘as a memorial to the uncontrolled greed of a farming dynasty once regarded as a pillar of the local agricultural community’.

He said with another nearby solar park it would amount to a ‘massive, unsightly intrusion into the landscape which will be incapable of being screened in any way’.

Objectors had done all they could to halt it, but ‘unfortunately as the planning regulations currently stand, there were no strong grounds for refusing it’.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said: “Ironically, only last week the Government, recognising the harm that was being done by the spread of solar farms, issued new guidance stressing they should only be allowed on brownfield sites or poor-quality agricultural land, and planners should have regard to the cumulative impact of several solar installations when grouped together.

“I am deeply disappointed that those guidelines arrived too late to be a factor in this issue.

“Sadly, the people of West Somerset will now have to drive past a memorial to the corporate greed currently being displayed by the Wyndham Estate which in this case has led to the comprehensive desecration of a fine sweep of attractive landscape.”

Among hundreds of objectors to the scheme was Exmoor National Park Authority (ENPA), which argued against the visual impact the solar farm would have when seen from beauty spots on the hills.

An ENPA spokesperson said: “In accordance with Government guidelines, major development in clear sight of national park viewpoints should only take place in exceptional circumstances and where it is in the public interest.

“Our planning policies seek to ensure that any development is of the right scale, directed to appropriate locations, and conserves and enhances the character and appearance of the national park, in line with the authority’s ‘local plan’.”

Williton Parish Council chairman Cllr Peter Payne expressed disappointment the argument the public would benefit from the electricity generated, outweighed the impact it would have on West Somerset.

Cllr Payne said: “Although it has been stated that this solar farm will be of a temporary nature and the site returned to the same condition as it is now this will will be a blot on the landscape for the next 40 years.”

He said parish councillors were discussing the appeal outcome at their meeting on Monday (June 3) to see if there any further action could be taken to try to prevent the solar farm being developed.

The Wyndham Estate declined to comment when approached by the Free Press.