Planned Wiltshire solar park progresses towards next phase

The team behind Lime Down Solar Park are considering feedback on the early proposals for the renewable energy scheme.

They have just completed an initial six-week community consultation, which started on Thursday 14 March and concluded on Friday 26 April.

The plans involve more than 2,000 acres (810 hectares) of land in a number of communities including Sherston, Hullavington and Stanton St Quintin, near Malmesbury, and the site would be connected to the National Grid substation in Melksham.

The company behind these proposals - Island Green Power, a leading developer of renewable energy projects - held this first round of consultation to introduce themselves, their proposals for Lime Down Solar Park, and give local communities a real opportunity to understand and influence the proposals from an early stage.

A spokesperson for the Lime Down Solar Park project said:

“We would like to extend our thanks to all those who participated in our Stage One community consultation and to everyone for the encouraging level of engagement we received during this time. 

"We are now reviewing the 1,300-plus responses submitted to us and will use this feedback to shape a strong set of proposals that respect and are sensitive to the concerns of local communities ahead of a further stage of community consultation planned for later this year.

"We are aware that there have been a significant number of questions surrounding the development and consultation process for Lime Down Solar Park and we remain available through our project- dedicated communications lines to respond to any queries people may still have on these topics ahead of the Stage Two consultation. 

"We are committed to continuing our work with local communities on an ongoing basis to address any misconceptions and to help strengthen understanding about both the process and the proposals at this stage.

"Our focus is on providing accurate and honest information that builds an understanding of how Lime Down Solar Park can generate affordable, low carbon energy and bring benefits while minimising adverse impacts on the local environment and surrounding communities. Recognising the importance of local input into this process, we are grateful for the feedback received as this will help us improve our understanding of the local area and determine which aspects local communities consider the most important for us to prioritise as we work to refine our proposals.”

Now that the Stage One consultation has ended, the Lime Down Solar Park project team will produce a Consultation Summary Report which will include a summary of the feedback received along with an overview of how these comments have been taken into account in the project development process.

To be directly notified when this document is made available, and to receive other updates, people can register their details with the project via https://www.limedownsolar.co.uk/register-here 

Further to developing more detailed proposals for the project, Island Green Power will then carry out a second stage of community consultation. The firm says this will be a statutory stage of consultation and will give local communities the opportunity to comment on more refined proposals for the project and see how they have evolved since the initial first round of consultation.

At this later stage, the team will be specifically interested in seeking views on the proposed location of equipment for the solar and energy park, the cable connection between the solar energy park and Melksham substation, and the measures proposed to mitigate the impacts associated with the project during construction and operation, should the application ultimately receive development consent.

Island Green Power will continue its engagement with Wiltshire Council, community groups and technical consultees and will undertake further environmental assessments ahead of publishing a Preliminary Environmental Information Report, anticipated later this year before the second stage of consultation.

Local residents and community members can continue to contact the project team directly by emailing [email protected], writing to FREEPOST Lime Down Solar, or calling 0808 175 6656.