'Relief' after 185-acre solar farm near Norwell village rejected

Residents say they are relieved after major plans for a 185-acre solar farm near their conservation village were rejected – but they fear an appeal may be on the horizon.

Foxholes Solar Limited, which is part of SSE Renewables, had been looking to build a solar farm on farmland near Norwell, a small conservation village in Newark and Sherwood.

Concerns for the environment and impact on the small village were raised, prompting more than 150 objections to the plan, but the developer’s agent argued the solar farm would have increased biodiversity of the land.

However, the plans were unanimously rejected at a Newark and Sherwood District Council planning meeting on Thursday.

If approved, the solar farm would have covered an area roughly the equivalent size of more than 100 football pitches, and generated clean, renewable energy for about 16,580 UK homes.

The agent said the overall biodiversity would have been increased with wildflowers, new hedgerows, and more waterways, while 16 skylark nesting spots would be built.

Speaking after the meeting, John Hobson, of the Norwell solar farm steering group, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) he was feeling “incredible relief”.

‘We’ll fight’

Hobson said: “We’ve been working on this since 2020, we’ve produced so many reports, and we thought we had got really good grounds for suggesting the planning committee refused it.