Says Court Solar Farm - site visit 19th July

South Marston Solar Farm near Swindon

The site visit for the Says Court Farm solar farm project will take place on Friday 19th July, with an expected arrival time of 2.20pm. Being at the end of a long list of site visits, there is obviously scope for delay. It is proposed that everyone meets at the entrance to Says Court Farm and that those speaking will do so there, residents will not go on to the site. Members of the committee will then be driven around the site and to various vantage points to allow them to assess the visual impact of the proposal. 

You can view both the full agenda and the Says Court Farm report online. At this stage the officer has not made a recommendation to members to approve or refuse the application. The report simply asks the committee members to inspect the site and view it from the surrounding area.

In preparation for speaking at the site visit, local councillor Claire Young has visited two solar farms, one near Swindon and one near Bradford-on-Avon, with one of the Westerleigh Parish Councillors. Although AEE Renewables gave Claire details of where the sites were, she did not tell them when she was going and they were not accompanied by anyone from the company, so the visits were done entirely independently.

While visiting the site, Claire took some pictures. There was a public footpath at the South Marston site, not far outside Swindon, so it was possible to walk about and get right up to the fence. AEE Renewables had said that the concrete foundations are not what is planned for Says Court, so that isn’t representative of this application, but the site did demonstrate fencing, buffer zones etc. The site near Bradford-on-Avon was more tucked away, but it was possible to take pictures over the wall of the neighbouring cemetery.

The pictures hopefully give some idea of the visual impact of the site. Noise was not a problem in either case - you could hear the transformers when you were very close to them but moving away the sound soon became inaudible. If you would like to visit the sites yourselves, the postcodes are SN3 4SF and BA15 1TR. You can also find out more from the AEE Renewables website - there are pages for the Bradford-on-Avon site, the South Marston site and the recently approved solar farm neighbouring the South Marston site.