Locals in the quaint English village of Easton Maudit are furious over plans for a huge solar farm which seems set to surround them on three sides.
Currently surrounded by golden fields of wheat, Easton Maudit is picture postcard perfect: 13th century church, thatched cottages, red phone box. There’s a riding school and locals walking spaniels.
And now there is anger directed at Energy Secretary Ed Miliband over his renewable plan which threatens to transform the place.
Juliet Jarvis, from Stop Green Hill Solar, explained :“It's going to be surrounded on three sides by 750 acres of glinting solar panels, maybe up to 4.5 metre tall, rotating to face the sun.”
The proposed solar panels are part of Green Hill Solar Farm, to be built on agricultural land across eight sites in Northamptonshire in total, just below the size of Heathrow Airport.
If given final approval, it will be one of the largest solar farms in the UK.
Sarah Bool, Conservative MP for South Northamptonshire, is concerned about the potential impact on the local area.
She told GB News: “We need clean energy and I am a fan of renewable energy, but it's not in the right place here when you are going to be taking agricultural fields out of use and replacing it with solar panels.
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|The village is fighting back against the development
"When there are warehouses, there are car parking spaces and other spaces you can use. That is the right place, not here.
"So these are not Nimbys for trying to have a logic and approach to helping our food security in the future.”
Local farmers have also voiced fears about the impact of the mega-solar farm.
Gary Elliott said: “Where is the food coming from in the future?
"If they're going to put solar panels all over the farmland, the food's got to be imported because it won't be grown in this country and we're only 60 per cent self-sufficient now.
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|Easton Maudit is an idyllic Northamptonshire village
"It's madness. It really is madness to put solar panels on good on good agricultural land."
Green Hill Solar is one of many solar farms proposed or under development by Island Green Power.
The company itself says “solar farms are typically built on land with lower quality agriculture value where growing food is not optimum”.
However, Green Hill is scheduled to be built entirely on agricultural land, 65 per cent of which is the higher quality land which is ideal for growing crops.
The proposed solar farm is so big its a NSIP: a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project.
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|A thatched cottage in the village
As such, the final decision rests with the Energy Secretary.
Jarvis admitted: “We are David against the Goliath. That's absolutely sure.”
Villager Bernard Livesey fell in love with Easton Maudit almost 40 years ago and is horrified by the proposed development.
“It's appalling," Livesey said. "I shall be regretting it and mourning what we have lost for for the rest of my life.”
Much of the farmland around the village is owned by Castle Ashby Compton Estates and farmed by tenant farmers, who have no say in what happens to the land.
Jarvis added: “The people who stand to make money out of industrial sized solar farms are the developers.
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|Juliet Jarvis
"What happens is the solar farms will become established. We know that this solar farm will then be sold off to a third party. They'll make an enormous amount of money every single day out of the electricity generated.”
Island Green Power is owned by Macquarie Asset Management, which was a major investor in Thames Water.
In response to outrage in the Northamptonshire village, a Department for Energy Security & Net Zero spokesman told GB News: “Families have seen their energy bills go through the roof due to our reliance on volatile gas markets controlled by dictators like Putin.
“Solar is central to our mission to become a clean energy superpower, delivering energy security for Britain so we can get bills down for good.
“All projects are subject to rigorous planning processes, and the views of the local community must be taken into account.”