Coffinswell Parish Council – Working group for Court Barton Solar Farm project – report to Annual Parish Council Meeting 17 May 2022

1. The terms of reference for the working group have been drawn up and agreed by council members.

2. A visual impact assessment of the solar farm has been completed by the working group. This will be published on the parish website. The main conclusions of the assessment are that the solar farm will not be visible from most of the public roads, bridleways and footpaths in the parish. It will be visible to some extent from Orestone Lane and Willowpark Lane. The greatest visual impact will be from Great Wheaton permissive footpath, where the solar farm will form the backdrop of views of the village towards the church, with several other listed buildings also in the view.

3. The landowners have been contacted to inform them of the activities and role of the working group, and they are happy with what we are doing. They appear to be having communication problems with the project developers.

4. A meeting of the working group on 20 April 2022 agreed a number of activities to follow up:

1. It was decided that a proposed presentation to the parish in the church by the developers in late April should not go ahead. It was felt that as the planning application has not yet been submitted there was likely to be a lack of sufficient detail, and a lack of answers to possible questions that would mean the meeting would be more of a box-ticking exercise for the developers than a useful forum for the parish. It is suggested that this presentation is held once the planning application has been submitted.

2. Discussions with the landowners should be held regarding possible benefits to the parish as a result of the solar farm project going ahead.

3. Contact should be made with Fuad-al-Tawil of Teign Energy Communities so get his views on the project. Fuad attended the Zoom meeting arranged by the developers in March and he appeared to be a useful source of information.

4. A visit to a solar farm recently completed by the developers should be arranged to get the views of the parish on how it went. However, it appears from the developer’s website that they have not yet completed a solar farm project. We will continue to look for other solar farm projects in Devon to see if there are any others that may provide useful parallels.

Report by Cllr Nick Orchard with input from Cllr Vince Flower and Stuart Labrum.

17 May 2022