A SOLAR development between Warminster and Amesbury is set to be extended in an effort to “future-proof” a farm that is more than 100 years old.

Codford Solar Farm is located near the villages of Codford St Mary and Chitterne and has been approved in four phases, the latest of which will see 17 new banks of solar panels installed north of the site.

Josh Stratton, the third generation of farmers at East Farm, was present at the meeting on Wednesday, July 10, to speak in support of his application.

He said: “Farming will always be the foremost use of our land, but we have moved into a number of different areas over the last twenty years, whether it's housing, business units, and then the renewable energy projects.

“Cumulatively, we’ve now got about 200 people working within our farm land area."

View from the south eastern corner of the application site looking north along the eastern boundary.View from the south eastern corner of the application site looking north along the eastern boundary. (Image: Wiltshire Council)

According to the plans submitted on behalf of JM Stratton & Co, the installed capacity is estimated to be around 18,000KWP, which is enough to supply the needs of approximately 5870 Wiltshire households.

The development would also require installing 34 CCTV cameras, 8 transformers, and a substation outside of the fenced area.

Mr Statton noted that the organisation’s priority remained food production, with the renewable projects only representing three per cent of the land area.

He concluded: “We’re trying to future-proof our farm, which is otherwise reliant on volatile weather and arable markets.”

The application was called in for the committee to determine at the request of the local member, Cllr Christopher Newbury, over concerns such as the visual impact and the scale of the development.

During the meeting, he said: “This application is nowhere near the worst that we have been seeing in Wiltshire lately.

“I guess that is largely because the applicants have been taking care not to be proposing land which is near to people’s houses and has a direct impact on them.”

He noted that the solar farm is “bigger than a village” and described the way officers approach policy in such applications as “very worrying.”

The case officer report stated that the southern part of Wiltshire had not seen the levels of solar development that had occurred in the central and northern areas, and recommended that the committee approve the application.

Cllr James Sheppard deemed the development as “sensible and well-positioned” and the committee voted to approve the plans.