Solar panel critic now 'supporter of plan'
BBCA critic of a proposed solar panel site in Guernsey says he is now a "complete supporter of the plan" after going through the details with the applicant.
Applicant Len Shephard said his proposals for 72 panels on a site behind his house in St Sampson could power five Guernsey households and save 505 trees a year.
The application initially received a complaint from Chris Chadwick, due to the site being defined as a greenfield area. However, Shephard and Chadwick have since met to go through the applications details, and Chadwick said he had been won over.
Planning officials are still considering the application.
Shepard said Chadwick became a supporter after he was "able to show him all of the information".
"He was good enough to just say: 'Well, it's nothing like I thought in the first place.'
"The information is available to a degree on the planning website but there was no substitute for sitting down like this."
He added the panels would be "fully demountable" and in the future "someone can just take it apart and you'd never know it was there".
Shephard said the site was "used for greenhousing" and had sat for "45 years doing nothing" due to buried greenhouse materials beneath the field.
He said: "It's designated as greenfield because there's no choice for the planning. It's either horticulture or agriculture.
"So we're kind of stuck with that... you're not going to be able to do any farming on it."
He added that proposals to build on greenfield sites should "be looked at on a case-by-case basis".
Chadwick explained his initial complaint was due to "little detail" being available online about the application.
He said: "It just said 72 panels and my initial reaction was that's going to cover all of the area.
"I saw the planning application right at the end of its period of notification so, by the time I looked at the website, the data wasn't there."
After learning more, Chadwick said Shephard "has put a lot of thought into making this work as best as possible."
Chadwick said he is now a "complete supporter of the of the plan" because Shephard had "considered all of the things that I asked questions about".
He said that "the panels are being stood up off the ground" so that grass and wildlife has access to the sun.
Chadwick added: "He probably won't see financial return from it his lifetime, so it's not a commercial decision: it's an altruistic decision to actually do the right thing."
The application has just seen a site assessment undertaken, according to the States' planning website.
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