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Barnsdale Gardens and Rutland Wildlife Sanctuary owners criticise Exton solar farm plan




Nick Hamilton will close Barnsdale Gardens if a solar power plant is allowed to be built on 67 acres of land next door.

The horticulturalist owns and runs the visitor attraction established 40 years ago by his late father, Geoff Hamilton.

But Nick believes a plan to put 160,000 solar panels on farmland between Barnsdale Gardens and Rutland Wildlife Sanctuary will kill off the attractions, bringing economic losses across the area.

Nick Hamilton, who runs Barnsdale Gardens
Nick Hamilton, who runs Barnsdale Gardens

“Rather than have lovely views of crops and sky we will have panels,” said Nick. “It will no longer be a rural environment.

“The panels are motorised to move with the sun and the noise will mean people having to raise their voices to talk to one another, never mind the fact it will eliminate birdsong.”

Nick has highlighted apparent inconsistencies in the statements of solar plant developer Econergy, which has said the ground is too waterlogged for growing crops, and that water running off the 3m tall panels would soak away into the soil.

The proposed development site. Image: Rutland County Council
The proposed development site. Image: Rutland County Council

He is also concerned about construction noise, which could involve a pile driver being used repeatedly to install mounts for the panels.

“I’ve no doubt it will kill our business,” he added. “Without visitors we can’t function and I don’t want Barnsdale to go down the plughole - I would end up buried in debt.”

Chris Lawton, who has run the wildlife sanctuary off Exton Lane for 25 years, is also concerned about construction noise and noise from the panels, which would remain in place for 40 years.

He said: “The birds of prey at our sanctuary have phenomenal hearing and so the noise from the panels would bother them constantly.

Chris Lawton is concerned birds at Rutland Wildlife Sanctuary will be affected
Chris Lawton is concerned birds at Rutland Wildlife Sanctuary will be affected

“We would notice a change in their behaviour,” he said, adding that noise would also be stressful for the big cats they care for.

“It’s not just the animals we look after, but the natural wildlife of the area would also suffer.

“There are ospreys that nest locally, and deer regularly cross from the woods near us over the land that they want to build on.”

Both Nick and Chris have a petition running for people opposed to the development, which can be signed by visiting Barnsdale Gardens or Rutland Wildlife Sanctuary. A petition link is also added to their websites.

“We have lobbied our local councillors and are submitting objections using Rutland County Council’s planning portal,” said Nick. “It’s a bit of a faff but I encourage others to do the same.

“The loss of these attractions and the 30,000-plus visitors that the gardens alone bring into the county each year will have a far larger effect on the local economy than Econergy’s pledged contributions.”

Dad-of-three Ollie Smith lives next to the proposed site and feels Rutland is going to become ‘the battery of England’ if its countryside keeps being covered in solar panels.

He said: “It’s not right. We should be covering car parks and roofs with panels, not farmland.

“Rutland can’t keep accepting more and more solar farms. They are already planned at Pilton, Whissendine, and Langham, and there’s Mallard Pass on our border with Lincolnshire.

“People have called Rutland The Notswolds because it is so attractive, like The Cotswolds, but it’s not going to have that appeal if solar panels cover such a wide area.”

He believes people should make property more energy efficient through insulation, roof-mounted solar panels and other renewable measures and thinks Rutland’s relatively small population is being burdened with a far greater area of solar farms proportionally than other local authority areas. He says the county has already ‘done its bit’.

There are 16 direct neighbours of the proposed 49.9 megawatt solar power plant and all should have been notified of the submission to Rutland County Council of the application, which has the reference 2024/1482/MAF.

Find out about planning applications that affect you at the Public Notice Portal.

Thanking those who engaged with a community consultation in 2022, Humphrey Jamieson from Econergy said: “The views of the community have helped shape our proposals, and we have made several changes to the original indicative design in response to the feedback we received and additional environmental assessments.”

The changes included battery storage units being removed from the plans, a 50-metre no-development buffer around parts of the site and resulting decrease in its size by more than 34 acres, the addition of bat and bird boxes and wildflower planting, and a payment by the developer of about £1million over the 40-year operational period for community-led improvements.

To reduce the visual impact, the panels are non-reflective and hedgerows would be planted as screening, while the company’s noise assessment concluded it would be within acceptable limits and only during daylight hours, while equipment such as inverters would be repositioned to where noise would have less effect.

According to Econergy, UK Government targets ‘require’ large-scale solar farms in addition to rooftop panels and it notes Rutland County Council’s declaration of a climate emergency, “further reinforcing the need for local renewable projects”.

The site was selected by the company for its proximity to a grid connection at Oakham substation, ‘good solar irradiation levels’, and because the it would mainly take up ‘moderate-quality’ farmland graded 3b, avoiding high-quality land given grades 1 and 2. Econergy also believes it to have “natural screening on most sides, minimising landscape and visual impact”.

The company’s business rate payments to Rutland County Council would be about £125,000 a year.

If plans are approved, Econergy is expected to lease the land from Exton Estates and spend about seven weeks building the development.

Using the link tinyurl.com/ExtonSolar, people can comment on the application until February 25.

After this, a decision will be made at Rutland County Council’s planning committee.



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