Plans to build a solar farm on countryside featured in the opening credits of The Vicar of Dibley would “spoil” the view, local residents have told the BBC.

Developers Solar2 want to build an 80 hectare solar farm on land near the Stokenchurch Gap — where the M40 scythes through the Chilterns.

The company say the 0.3 sq mile (0.8 sq km) development — near the Oxfordshire villages of Lewknor and Postcombe — would generate enough energy to power 16,500 homes.

But those opposed to the plans say the panels would “just wreck” the landscape “forever”.

Robert Massie, from Postcombe, said: “It was chosen by Richard Curtis, who wrote the vicar of Dibley, specifically as the opening titles for the Vicar of Dibley because it was a quintessentially English view.”

“It’s like something out of a Tolkien novel — you suddenly open the vista and it goes for miles, as far as the eye can see,” he said.

“If you’re going to chose a place to plonk a massive industrial solar farm, for goodness sake, why put it there?”

Mr Massie said it would “truly be a tragedy” if the plans were approved, adding that the “massive, whacking-great big” solar panels would “just hideously spoil the view”.

The proposed development lies within the protected Chilterns National Landscape and is one mile (1.6km) away from the Aston Rowant Nature Reserve.

Dr Matt Thomson, from Chilterns National Landscape, said connection with nature was “so important for people’s wellbeing”, but would be “disrupted by the insertion of an industrial feature”.

He added that the proposals would be an “interruption to the landscape”.

Solar2 declined a BBC request to comment, but the government said solar energy was “central to our mission to become a clean energy superpower”.

“All projects are subject to rigorous planning processes, and the views of the local community must be taken into account,” a Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson added.