MP: Horsham councillors must reject Cobwood Solar Farm

The planning committee will meet this evening (May 21) to discuss whether the Cobwood Solar Farm application from Low Carbon UK – an investment firm – should be allowed to build on 45hectares of farmed land owned by the Camelia Botnar Foundation.

The significant development would stretch across three large parcels of land, located north of the A272 Cowfold Road, and include a solar photovoltaic farm, associated infrastructure, substation, transformers, and security fencing.

The applicant proposes that production would be a maximum of 49.9MW. Any site that proposes production of 50.0MW or more would have to be dealt with as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project and therefore be determined by the Planning Inspectorate on behalf of the Secretary of State.

The MP, local residents and nature groups are alarmed at the scale and location of the proposal which is on fields which are farmed with crops and dairy cattle. It is an area rich in bio-diversity, located close to the Knepp Estate and the Weald to Waves project area.

The Horsham District Nature Recovery Network map shows that some of the site of the proposed solar farm has been identified as having either ‘very high habitat potential’ or ‘high habitat potential’.

Just last week, the Government’s Energy Security Secretary, Claire Coutinho MP, told Parliament that agricultural land must be protected from development, including solar farms, for food security. While solar will continue to play a key part in government’s plans for energy security and net zero, the focus should be on brownfield areas of low quality land, and rooftops as priorities locations.

The Planning Committee South meets at 5.30pm in Horsham. It is chaired by Len Ellis-Brown (LibDem, Pulborough), and comprised of five other Liberal Democrat councillors. eight Green Party councillors, and seven Conservative councillors.

Mr Griffith said: “Horsham Councillors must oppose these ‘unsustainable’ proposals to damage local food production and nature recovery.

"Horsham residents are rightly sick of the hypocrisy of the local Greens and Lib Dems talking about nature and climate emergencies but then barrelling ahead with granting permission for financial speculators to smother the countryside with solar when the better place is on rooftops and brownfield land.”