Deadline 2 (1 July) has now passed. Documents submitted are now available to read on the Inspectorate’s website (138 of them). Deadline 3 is on 22 July when comments on the documents submitted at Deadline 2 can be made.
Please find a moment to read some of these and respond by 22 July.
We particularly encourage you to read:
Your response may be endorse or expand on a point you agree with or to disagree with the answers and responses given. Please send all your comments through the “Have your Say” link to the Inspectorate. Remember to clearly reference the document and numbered paragraph that you are responding to.
It is important that as many relevant comments from SBW supporters as possible are submitted. Please do this by 22 July. (Deadline 3)
You can respond HERE or by e-mailing BotleyWestSolar@planninginspectorate.gov.uk
Stop Botley West recently organised 3 events where Professor Alex Rogers, Chair of SBW provided an update on the stage that we’re currently at in the examination, what happens next, what SBW have been working on and how the funds raised so far are being used.
The two presentations from these events are shown below (Update from Prof Alex Rogers and Community Impact Report).
A Positive Update: West Oxfordshire District Council Calls for Significant Reduction in Botley West Site in their Written Representation Submitted on 4 June.
Please submit your comments to PINS in support.
Needless to say, Botley West is no ordinary proposal. It's sheer size and unrelenting footprint is what stands it apart from the countless other large scale solar proposals currently vying for approval across the country. The proposed site location, our home, is graced with wide open fields, undulating river valleys and accompanying views, productive agricultural land, a myriad of public rights of way, a world famous UNESCO world heritage site and of course us – its residents.
At times, it has felt like local voices don’t matter. Consultations have too often felt like a box-ticking exercise, where being heard is not the same as being listened to.
The sheer scale and sprawl of this scheme is simply not acceptable.
But we can now say that our concerns have been legitimised through the meticulous, fact-based assessment from West Oxfordshire District Council in their recent Written Representation.
That’s why we are pleased to see WODC’s call to drastically reduce the proposed size of Botley West Solar Farm represented in their revised map here:
Quote taken from Vale of White Horse DC Written Representation
Map from West Oxfordshire DC Written Representation
The evidence WODC has submitted to the Planning Inspectorate is compelling as they have examined the case for removing areas of panels based on heritage, landscape and visual, flooding and agricultural land quality issues.
Read WODC’s full Written Representation here.
In addition, the Joint Local Impact Report, prepared by WODC with Cherwell, the Vale, and Oxfordshire County Council, summarises the impact of the project as follows:
The Local Impact Report (LIR) - a thorough and detailed document of over 180 pages - lays out clear reasons, with evidence, how and why they have judged each impact to be either negative or neutral with none seen as positive.
Read the full LIR here.
Please also see the Written Representation submitted by Stop Botley West here.
By the deadline of 1 July, SBW will be submitting our Community Impact Report in a supportive response to the Joint Council’s Local Impact Report.
We are therefore asking that our supporters in the community also write to the Planning Inspectorate to share your support of both WODC’s Written Representation and of the Joint Local Impact Report. Please visit the ‘Have Your Say’ section of the PINS website to submit your comments by 1st July.
To help you navigate this mammoth collection we have produced a contents list with links to these documents.
Fundraising Update 5th March 2025
It was really wonderful to see so many of you at our recent public information events in Cumnor, Cassington and Long Hanborough and we’d like to thank you for your generosity, both with your time and donations.
We are happy to announce that we have now raised just over £116,000 out of our target £150,000. Your donations are already being well spent on our Planning Consultant and Experts in landscape and heritage and we will soon be able to share Stop Botley West’s Relevant Representation which has been the culmination of much hard work by the team on behalf of SBW.
Please continue to support the campaign if and when you can. If all those due to be affected by Botley West can contribute even a small amount, we can certainly reach our target! Please donate here.
Nowhere in the world has a ground mounted solar farm this vast (bigger than Heathrow) been built so near to human habitation (11,000 homes within 1.5km) and for very good health and safety reasons (learn more).
It would remove thousands of tons of crops each year at a time of growing concern about food security. 250,000 hectares of unused, south-facing commercial roofs in the UK could be used instead (learn more).
There are many better ways to produce green energy. Offshore wind is up to 51% efficient compared with solar panels less than 22% (learn more).
There will be no natural gains for wildlife or the environment. There will be loss of wildlife habitat, increased risk of flooding and 51 miles of 8ft high animal proof security fencing restricting movement (learn more).
Botley West may never pay back the carbon debt it accumulates in the construction, transportation and decommissioning of panels. There is a huge amount of carbon generated in all these operations (learn more).
The current plans show Botley West SF could encroach within 100m of Blenheim Palace boundary wall and threaten its UNESCO World Heritage Site status. Historic sites like Sansom’s Platt in Wootton and Churchill’s grave in Bladon Churchyard would also be overwhelmed (learn more).
75% of the proposed site is on greenbelt land which should be protected. It would industrialise the countryside for 40 years and may never be returned to agricultural use (learn more).
Solar Panels will be highly visible at ground level from roads and footpaths for visitors and residents alike over an 11 by 3 mile area, It cannot be ‘landscaped to only be seen through gaps in the hedges’ as claimed (learn more).
The main financial beneficiaries of this industrialisation of the countryside are overseas developers PVDP (of dubious pedigree) and landowners Blenheim Estate (NOT the Palace itself) (learn more).
The Local Solution
Solar energy should be used specifically to meet local demands and directly benefit local communities, not big landowners and overseas companies.
And there are other imaginative means of providing green energy. These are just four:
The National Solution
As well as a national rollout of these local solutions we have offshore windpower which offers peak electricity in the dark winter months when the UK most needs energy and when solar panels are least efficient. And, of-course, there are other offshore energy sources – wave power, tidal power etc already in use.
Finally, Andrew Tettenborn, Professor of Law at Swansea Law School sums it up in the Spectator: “In the dash for Green Energy “corporate capital is being handed a heaven- sent opportunity at the expense of you, me and the country we live in at least as regards solar power (Government policy) is not working for the benefit of the people ……..
but instead seems to favour a more international clientele.”
All of this means we don’t need old fashioned, large scale, inefficient solar ‘farms’.
Welcome! Share your contact details to receive regular email updates on the Botley West proposal