Agenda item

 Members will recall that consideration of this application was given at the last meeting of this Committee when it was resolved to defer consideration pending the holding of a site visit. 

Members attending the site visit will report back to this meeting after which the Committee will be asked to determine the application.  An updated  report by the case officer is attached.

The following people spoke against the proposal:

Mr Jack Churchill, a local resident

Mr David Hawkins, a local resident

Mr John Kirkman, representing the CPRE

Cllr Tony Murch, representing Seend Parish Council

The following people spoke in support of the proposal:

Mr Roger Keen, landowner

Mrs Sophy Fearnley-Whittingstall, representing Wiltshire Clean Energy Alliance

Mr St John Hughes, the applicant

The Committee was reminded that consideration of this application had been given at the previous meeting of this Committee when it had been resolved to defer consideration pending the holding of a site visit which had taken place earlier that day.

The Committee received a presentation by the Area Development Manager who set out the main issues in respect of the application. In introducing the report, he stated that it had been updated since the previous meeting to include details of the National Planning Practice Guidance relevant to this proposal that had been recently issued by the Government. The report recommended that planning permission be granted subject to conditions.

Members of the Committee then had the opportunity to ask technical questions after which the Committee received statements from members of the public as detailed above, expressing their views regarding the planning application.

Members of the Committee then heard the views of Cllr Jonathon Seed, an adjoining local Member, who explained that a number of his constituents in Seend objected to the proposal on account of the size of the development

and the visual impact from their properties. 

During the following discussion, Cllr Terry Chivers reported that, as local Member, he had widely consulted his local constituents and also the local councils within his constituency and had received only one objection.

A number of Members of the Committee stated that, whilst they supported renewable energy, they considered that the scale of the proposed development was unacceptable. Furthermore, the number of similar operations proposed or built within this area of Wiltshire was such that they considered that the cumulative effect was leading to an industrialisation of the countryside.

Cllr Terry Chivers proposed and Cllr Graham Wright seconded a motion to move the Officer recommendation to grant planning permission, subject to the conditions set out in the report.  

The motion was put to the meeting and lost, whereupon it was

Resolved:

To refuse planning permission for the following reasons:-

(Cllr Terry Chivers requested that his vote against the motion be recorded.)