A retired magistrate has slammed plans for a solar farm that would surround his “oasis” hamlet in Worcestershire as “incredulous”.
Canterbury-based Tyler Hill Renewables wants to cover 64 acres of farmland in Comhampton with rows of solar panels.
The proposed development would place solar panels within metres of homes and listed buildings.
“It’s just incredulous. It’s gone on for so long, and we’ve put so many reasons for objections in,” said resident Anthony Jordan, 59, who now works as a part-time gardener.
Anthony Jordan has spoken out against the plans
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The group have been protesting since the proposals
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Jordan, who lives with his wife Lisa, daughter Emily and grandson Oscar, described Comhampton as “a very small hamlet” with listed buildings.
“We’re surrounded by grade one farmland,” he told GB News. Until a few years ago, the land was owned by a family farm before being sold to a farmer from Malvern. Jordan explained the area is popular with walkers, cyclists and horse riders, with footpaths throughout the land.
“From one field that they’re considering, you can actually see Malvern Hills,” he added.
“The properties will be within six to eight foot of 2.3-2.4 meter high, glass and steel.”
Jordan continued to explain that residents living in the far end of the village would have panels just nine feet from their single-storey dwellings.
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Some of the land near Comhampton
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The solar farm would be built on land near the hamlet
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Jordan emphasised the land’s agricultural importance, describing it as “some of the highest quality” farmland producing multiple vegetable crops annually. Jordan warned about potential flooding risks from the development.
He told GB News: “The land that we’re talking about, because it’s light soil, when it’s not farmed, the runoff onto the A449 causes problems.
“It’s so peaceful. It’s an oasis between a city and a large town and it’s one of the nicest places you could visit. It’s hidden.
“You’d fly past it on the dual carriageway, where you wouldn’t even know it was here. But it’s got such wonderful access as well, to everywhere, to motorways to the cities and the views.
“The land has been round here for a long time. And it’s a privilege, really, to live somewhere like this and see it farmed properly, and see all the the farm workers come in and hand pick the produce.
“So there’s jobs. There’s multiple jobs here, not, you know, maintenance, but that’ll come round and wash the panels off once every three months or something.
“There’s a lot of people that are employed through this and it does a lot of good for the country.”
The Worcestershire land where the solar farm would be
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Head of Development Management for Wychavon District Council Ciaran Power said: “The original application was received in September 2023, and a consultation was carried out in October that year. Comments from the consultation raised several issues.
“A formal extension to the statutory time limit to decide the application was agreed to give the applicant time to provide the further information required. It is common practice for extensions of time to be granted when an application is complex.
“They allow technical consultee comments to be addressed, investigation of relevant matters, and prevent wasted time further down the line. They should not be taken as an indication of whether a council will ultimately deem the application acceptable.
“Some additional information required took longer than anticipated for the applicant to produce. This was received towards the beginning of this year. A second consultation was carried out on the application, including the additional information and revised plans, in January and ended on 13 February.
“A further extension of time has been agreed until the end of April to allow all of the consultee responses to be received, further consideration of additional representations and to give officers time to consider the complex material planning issues involved.”
GB News has approached Tyler Hill Renewables for a comment.