AN application to build what would be Cornwall’s largest solar farm is due to be considered by councillors.

Energy company EDF Renewables has applied to install a huge solar array covering around 82.5 hectares (almost 204 acres) across 19 agricultural fields at Trelion, St Stephen, near St Austell.

A Cornwall Council strategic planning committee has been advised to approve the application at its meeting on Thursday, May 21, despite the local member, St Stephen-in-Brannel Parish Council and over 130 people opposing the proposal.

Cornwall Council’s planning department says the weight attached to the provision of renewable energy is significant with the government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) now supporting renewable energy provision with fewer restrictions.

A recent planning committee was warned by officers that a decision to refuse another solar application at Marazion would likely be overturned at appeal. As a result, members approved it despite opposition and their own misgivings.

What is currently due to be Cornwall’s largest solar farm, on 80 hectares of agricultural land between Mitchell, Trispen, St Erme and Carland Cross, was approved on appeal. The Fair Park solar farm in the Hendra valley was initially refused by a Cornwall Council planning committee.

The Trelion development would provide renewable energy equivalent to the average annual energy consumption of 9,500 homes and save approximately 21,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year.

Planners note that the site is used for arable and grazing purposes, and state that the development would cause some landscape impact.

The application has received more than 135 comments on Cornwall Council’s planning portal, with just two in support.

Cornwall councillor Elaine Kist (St Stephen-In-Brannel, Reform UK) shares the concerns of the parish council, which has opposed the plan.

She said: “These include conflict with the St Stephen-in-Brannel neighbourhood development plan, adverse landscape, visual and accumulative impacts, concerns about biodiversity net gain, flood risk, impacts on residential amenity and more.”

The Stop Trelion Solar Farm group was formed to protest against the proposal. The members argue that their particular part of Cornwall is being “dumped on again”. There are eight other solar farms near St Stephen due to the area’s proximity to a National Grid connection.

The group carried out a mapping exercise which showed seven per cent of land in their area will be covered by solar panels; the average in Cornwall is 0.34 per cent.

Farmer Rose Barnecut said: “There’s a solar park gold rush going on here and this Clay Country village community is just being asked to take too much.

“The really shocking thing is the proposed site will by EDF’s own assessment be visible from a staggering 80 per cent of St Stephen parish. What people will see as they look across the landscape is behind them the clay waste and in front of them a sea of black glass.”

Find out about planning applications that affect you by visiting the Public Notice Portal.

The group supports the general development of renewable energy but members believe there are a large number of reasons why the Trelion solar farm should be refused.