Rejection of £800m solar farm 'big blow' - developers

A government decision to reject proposals for one of Europe's largest solar farms is a "big blow" to the local area, the developers behind the scheme have said.

The £800m Botley West solar farm in Oxfordshire would have spread across more than 2,000 acres of land to the north and west of Oxford.

On Tuesday, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero rejected the plans, saying they would cause "substantial" harm to greenbelt and heritage assets.

Mark Owen-Lloyd, director of the developers behind the scheme Photovolt Development Partners (PVDP), said the decision was "disappointing".

"The overwhelming local feedback I got was support, and we have been working on this for five years," Owen-Lloyd said.

"The decision of the Secretary of State is a big blow to Oxfordshire."

PVDP previously said the project was crucial to meeting the UK's climate and energy security goals, and could power the equivalent of 330,000 homes.

But in its ruling the government said it did not do enough to mitigate negative impacts on the landscape.

Consent was also refused as the site would have "adverse impacts on aviation safety" presenting an unacceptable risk to public safety.

The developer now has six weeks to launch a judicial review. Owen-Lloyd said the firm had "a decision to make in the coming days".

"If we apply to judicial review and succeed we could come back and reframe this project, so we might reduce it [in size] or reapply," he said.

"But we've spent a lot of time on this - maybe it's a moment to move on and do one of the other eight projects that we've got in the UK," he added.

The government decision followed several years of consultations, with the proposals proving controversial across Oxfordshire.

Bicester and Woodstock MP Calum Miller has been a consistent critic of the plans and said he was "delighted" the the government had made the "right decision for our area" in refusing it permission.

"This was a proposal that could have done so much better," the Liberal Democrat said.

"We desperately need a move to renewables, but throughout this process the developers were greedy in the amount of land that they wanted and they just didn't listen to the local communities."