Botley West Solar Farm

Developers are proposing a new solar farm in the west of Oxfordshire, called Botley West solar farm. It would be the largest solar farm in Europe, covering 3,400 acres, the size of 2000 football pitches.

The decision on the plans will be made by the Government Planning Inspectorate at national level after an ongoing process of consultation, evidence, and submissions by interested parties.  

West Oxfordshire District Council can influence the decision through their responses to consultations, and through the environmental impact report they will prepare before the application goes to the inspectorate.  It will be a lengthy process, and the decision will not be made before 2025.  We will update our page with more information whenever there are developments.

It is still early days; the proposals so far have been the equivalent of a “pre-app” phase, sounding out the views of local residents and planning authorites. They are likely to change substantially before they go forward to the planning inspectorate.

West Oxfordshire Green Party welcomes the government’s eventual realization that we need an alternative to fossil fuels but, like many residents, is concerned about the size, location and ecological impact of the proposed scheme.

The need for installations on this scale may not have come about if the government had tackled the climate crisis sooner, upgrading the national grid and encouraging small, community based generation schemes, including those on rooves and brownfield sites. It is still important that we move forward with such schemes, and upgrade the national grid and accompanying technologies to support them. Unfortunately, we are running out of time.

Many residents have engaged with the two community consultations that have taken place so far. West Oxfordshire District Council has sent the following response, to which our three District Councillors fed in:

https://www.westoxon.gov.uk/media/gwenkqsd/wodc-botley-west-consultation-response-final-feb-2024.pdf

The developers are aware that there is a lot of resistance to their plans, and so they will be keen to prove that they are listening. Following the 2022 consultation, changes were made, including pulling back from some villages, adding a community benefit fund (not nearly big enough, in our opinion), undertaking to sell electricity at discounted prices to the community, and offering plots to local agro-ecological food growers.

The  energy policy of the Green Party of England and Wales recognises solar energy as a key source of decentralised generation, but emphasises that we should be making full use of domestic, commercial and industrial roof space and supports limited deployment of ‘solar farms’.

In the West Oxfordshire Green Party, we have several members, including our district councillors, with expertise in solar technologies and in food, farming and soil health. We are scrupulously investigating the scheme, and looking for ways its environmental and community benefits could be maximized. If the proposal is supported by the National Planning Inspectorate, we want it to be as beneficial as it can be.

Much of the land that Botley West would use has been intensively farmed and, for this reason, it is not unreasonable for the developers to claim that biodiversity would be improved by the scheme. Large, over-cultivated fields with few hedgerows are always terrible for nature, so a switch to solar panels and the end of ploughing, fertilisers and pesticides really could benefit the soil and nature.

Because of its size, the decision about whether Botley West will go ahead is being treated as a national infrastructure project, and therefore rests with the national Planning Inspectorate. It will be a lengthy process, and any decision will not be made before 2025.  We will update our page with more information whenever there are developments.

BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS
The developers’ website is here:

https://botleywest.co.uk/Home-Botley-West.html

Scroll down their home page till you see “indicative project timeline”.

West Oxfordshire District Council has published its draft planning response for this stage of the Botley West Solar Farm consultation.  https://meetings.westoxon.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=1141&MId=2340&Ver=4

This DRAFT response will be reviewed at a the Council's Development Control Committee meeting on 5th February.

NOTE: The decision on the plans will be made by the Government Planning Inspectorate at national level after an ongoing process of consultation, evidence, and submissions by interested parties.  

More information from West Oxfordshire District Council can be found here:

https://www.westoxon.gov.uk/planning-and-building/planning-policy/botley-west-solar-farm/

Chris Goodall, a journalist and expert in new energy technologies (and former Green Party parliamentary candidate) has looked at many of the concerns about the proposed solar farm here:

https://www.carboncommentary.com/blog/2023/1/12/c1d9rhg8s4j3t88vdkqi5d26epwpfd

Other useful sites in considering the project include:

https://www.lowcarbonhub.org/botley-west-solar-farm/

 https://stopbotleywest.com

https://www.cpreoxon.org.uk/news/botley-west-consultation-open/

and in response to the latest round of consultations Sustainable Woodstock are trying to get an order of magnitude increase in community benefit through an email campaign.

https://www.sustainablewoodstock.co.uk/index.html 

You may also find this interesting :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE5BIAa3Ymo

(A video from Westmill solar farm)