PLANS for a massive solar farm in the Itchen Valley have met with a cautious response from residents.

A public consultation was held by Kronos Solar Projects on Monday (May 6), with around 35 residents poring over artist’s impressions and information panels at Itchen Abbas and Avington Village Hall.

If civic chiefs approve plans for the site near Folly Hill Farm, Itchen Stoke, it will be the first project of its kind for the Winchester district, and the 30mega watt farm could produce electricity for around 18,700 people.

But recurring concerns from those present were the visual impact of the solar panels and the loss of farm land.

Frank Bohne, a director at Kronos, said: “We have employed professional landscape architects to take care of the landscape management of the site. We will put trees and hedges wherever there is a visual impact.

“Our panels are 2.20m to 2.40m high and the hedges planted around it will be about 3m high.”

Robin Thorne, 70, from Ovington, said: “Looking at the plans, compared to wind farms it seems much less intrusive. It’s easy to be entirely negative but I’m sure that the visual impact will be examined very closely.

“The most dangerous thing would be to come down instantly for or against before you know anything about it.”

Winchester and Chandler’s Ford MP Steve Brine visited the consultation and said he only found out about the plans less than a week ago. He said he had since been trying to raise public awareness of the consultation.

He said: “I like the idea of clean, renewable energy but it seems a shame to lose active farmland. The community have to decide whether the benefits stack up for them.”

Kronos say the energy generated would feed into the national grid and back to the local community, providing “energy security”.

Display boards also said the initiative would provide local jobs through planning, construction, operation and maintenance of the site.

The 68 hectare plot is part of the Grange Estate, owned by the Baring family, and no formal planning application has yet been made.