Basingstoke Solar Farm
At the end of April there was a public exhibition at the Community Centre by a company called Belectric, which is proposing a huge solar panel farm around the anaerobic digester, over the M3 bridge in the fields on the right of the lane going up to Farleigh Wallop. The major facts about this proposal are as follows – and I would particularly draw your attention to the highlighted items 3, 6 and 8;
1. It is a 128-acre site that will be screened by trees and bushes, and should be virtually unnoticeable from Hatch Warren or Beggarwood.
2. The construction of this huge facility is planned to take approximately 12 weeks, and should provide power for up to 5,600 homes.
3. All construction traffic for the site is expected to travel along – wait for it – yes, Woodbury Road. The company claim that there will be relatively few vehicles, and that they will adhere to a policy of lorry movements during daylight, weekday, hours, and avoiding the school run times.
4. After the construction period, there will be virtually no need for any vehicles to access the site.
5. After 25 years the solar panels and associated hardware will be removed and recycled, and the site will be returned to agricultural use.
6. Belectric intend to give local residents the opportunity to invest in the site, with some kind of guaranteed income and capital return on amounts invested.
7. During the site’s 25 year operation Belectric intend the site to include “wildflower meadows and bee hives to provide net positive ecological returns”.
8. The site has to be connected to the local electricity grid. Belectric claim that this connection will be made by running cable across over a mile of fields, to existing ducting that runs under the M3 at the bridge leading to Cliddesden, by the roundabout at the junctions of Cliddesden Lane, Brighton Way and Hatch Warren Lane, and then “to a sub-station in central Basingstoke”, with “any trenching using existing grass verges requiring very short-term temporary disruption”, and therefore “avoiding Hatch Warren and Beggarwood”. One wonders whether this is a viable option; a local resident was informed at the public exhibition when he raised this point that it was likely the connection would be made to the electricity sub-station at the southern junction of Woodbury Road and Long Cross Lane, by the Community Centre, which would, of course, be much closer to the site, and which would, of course, most definitely not “avoid Hatch Warren and Beggarwood”.
The formal planning application for the site hasn’t yet been made, and our Councillors have confirmed they will be keeping an eye on this to try to ensure there is as little disruption as possible to Hatch Warren, Kempshott Rise and Beggarwood residents.
Sam Weller
