{"id":105285,"date":"2025-10-28T13:49:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/105285\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T13:49:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:49:12","slug":"solar-farm-size-of-130-football-pitches-approved-near-melton-mowbray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/105285\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar farm size of 130 football pitches approved near Melton Mowbray"},"content":{"rendered":"

A solar farm the size of 130 football pitches has been given the go-ahead after a councillor said it was “inevitable” it would be approved on appeal.<\/p>\n

Applicant RWE Renewables said the 214-acre plot at Pickwell near Melton Mowbray would power more than 25,000 homes.<\/p>\n

But the site is split over two council areas. Melton Borough Council (MBC) approved the larger site, but a smaller portion of the development is in neighbouring Rutland and still up for consideration by the respective council.<\/p>\n

The planning committee voted in favour of approving the scheme, with six voting for and four against.<\/p>\n

The MBC application had attracted 229 letters of support, against 53 objections, the Local Democracy Reporting Service<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

But the meeting heard the letters of support were largely as a result of a form given out to residents by RWE Renewables, which led to accusations from an objector that supporters were not local.<\/p>\n

This claim was refuted by both the applicant and the council.<\/p>\n

Councillor James Mason said he had “agonised” over the solar farm decision for days, but added it would be “inevitable that this solar farm will get built on appeal”.<\/p>\n

Ward councillor Leigh Higgins called the farm “industrial infrastructure and an alien feature imposed on open countryside”.<\/p>\n

But the applicant defended the project and said the farmland would return in 40 years’ time with “an improved soil condition”, and added renewable energy was a “national need, not a local need”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A solar farm the size of 130 football pitches has been given the go-ahead after a councillor said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-105285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}