A proposed 49.5-megawatt solar farm in Severn Vale has been rejected by Stroud District Council, sparking celebrations among local residents who feared the area was becoming a development “dumping ground.” The project, submitted by PACE Tribute Energy Ltd, aimed to install south-facing photovoltaic panels across 120 acres near Epney, just 400 yards from the River Severn and close to the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal.
The scheme featured solar arrays up to 9.8 feet tall, along with a substation, inverters, and a grid connection compound. However, it faced strong opposition from several parish councils, including Fretherne with Saul, Longney and Epney, Frampton-on-Severn, and Arlingham, as well as the county highways department, the South Cotswold Ramblers, and more than 200 local residents.
Council officers recommended refusal, highlighting concerns that the grid connection compound would be an “alien, overbearing and unsympathetic” intrusion into the pastoral Severn Vale grazing marshland. They also noted inadequate information regarding biodiversity improvements, impacts on protected habitats, and mitigation of conflicts between construction traffic and other road users.
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Conservative Councillor Robert Brown, representing the Severn ward, opposed the proposal based on its potential to cause serious visual harm to the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal area—an important and protected heritage landscape that has benefitted from extensive restoration and public funding. He emphasized the risk of overburdening local roads already strained by existing development.
Residents echoed these concerns. Fretherne with Saul Parish Councillor Andrew Brown revealed that 99% of locals in a community poll opposed the installation, emphasizing that while they support renewable energy, they reject industrial-scale projects in inappropriate locations. The proposed site is home to wildlife including skylarks, curlews, otters, badgers, and several bat species.
Longney and Epney Parish Councillor Roger Godwin criticized the broader trend of the Severn Vale bearing a disproportionate share of Gloucestershire’s development pressures, describing the area as a “dumping ground” due to its proximity to major transport routes.
Landowner Tricia Griffiths defended the project as necessary to secure her family farm’s future, citing the stable income the solar farm would provide over 100 of their 600 acres and facilitating diversification into sheep grazing under the panels. Her family has farmed in the region for four generations.
PACE’s planning manager, Callum Wright, stated that concerns were largely procedural, asserting that updated plans addressed ecological and riparian buffer issues. He also offered to conduct additional highway safety surveys.
During the planning committee debate, further objections were raised regarding the site’s location on a floodplain and the cumulative impact of multiple solar developments, paralleling concerns previously expressed about intensive chicken farms in the nearby River Wye catchment.
Ultimately, the committee voted unanimously to reject the application in line with council officers’ recommendations, marking a victory for local residents and environmental advocates cautious about large-scale development in Severn Vale.