PLANS for a major new solar farm are being drawn up for near Farley Mount.

The scheme is planned for the land north of South Lynch Farm and is set to generate up to 20MWp.

Developers Novus and Innova are still in the pre-application stage of the plans, with a formal planning application yet to be submitted to Winchester City Council.

In the planning document, it said: “We are proposing a solar farm on land north of South Lynch Farm, approximately 3.5km north of Hursley village. 

“This will offset the annual energy needs of approximately 4,722 homes in Winchester City Council's authority area and save around 4,054 tonnes of CO2.

“At a local level, Winchester City Council has declared a climate emergency in June 2019 and is committed to becoming a carbon-neutral local authority by 2024 and is aiming for the wider district to be carbon neutral by 2030.

Hampshire Chronicle:

“If approved, the development would be constructed over a period of approximately four months. The solar farm would then be operational for a period of 40 years, needing only occasional maintenance. At the end of this period, the development would be decommissioned, and the land restored to its previous condition. 

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“The existing South Lynch Farm access track from Farley Mount Road will be utilised, with a construction compound located close to the farm buildings. A new access track will be established along a field margin to connect the solar farm to the existing track. This access track will measure approximately four metres wide and will likely comprise crushed stone over a geotextile membrane, with no concrete required. 

“It is currently proposed that all construction traffic should route via Junction 11 of the M3, the main reason being that traffic routing to the site from the north of the proposed access would otherwise be required to traverse several country lanes, including junctions that should be avoided by larger construction vehicles.”

Nicola Jones, senior planning manager at Innova, said: "We attended the Sparsholt Parish Council meeting on November 17 where we provided a presentation and held a Q&A session.

"From this, we received a number of constructive comments from the parish councillors and members of the public which we are taking on board and currently reviewing prior to the submission of the planning application."