This application was withdrawn by the applicant on 13 June. No reason was given other than “unexpected circumstances”. If the application had gone ahead and had been approved, the site would have become classified as brownfield land, allowing it to be developed as housing or other uses at a later date. For that reason, it was unlikely to have been approved by Shropshire Council.

Original post 12 June 2018

Maybe by 2046, we won’t care as a community. But one of the conditions for approval of the controversial solar farm near Henley Hall on Squirrel Lane was that it would be dismantled by 2046.

The company running this scheme has now bid for this time restriction to be removed in its entirety. That means there can be solar panels on the site well beyond the middle of the century. Indefinitely. This is another instance where the planning system has given a few inches and the scheme promoters will take a few miles. It was ever thus.

People will have very different views on extending the life of this renewable scheme. I don’t see why there is a need to grant a variation in the planning condition this early in the life of the solar farm..

This very short blog is to alert you to the planning application (18/02473/VAR). Comments should be in with Shropshire Council by the end of June.

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