Villagers opposing plans to build the UK’s biggest solar farm on the Suffolk/Cambridgeshire border have launched a campaign group to fight the “intrusive” development.
The proposed Sunnica Energy Farm would be based at three sites close to the villages of Worlington, Freckenham, Chippenham and Snailwell and cover 2,600 acres of farmland.
The farm would have the potential to deliver up to up to 500MW of renewable energy, enough to power approximately 100,000 homes.
MORE: Could the biggest solar farm in the country be coming to west Suffolk?But now the Say No to Sunnica action group has been formed by concerned villagers, who are worried about the size of the project and the negative impact on wildlife, archaeology and the landscape.
Steve Wilson, from Say No to Sunnica, said: "Firstly, it's important to say that we are not against solar, but we are against the sheer scale of this scheme.
"It would cover an area more than twice the size of RAF Mildenhall and would swamp the entire area. The size is unbelievable and it's completely out of scale and intrusive.
"On top of that, you've got the loss of the agricultural land and food production, the loss of footpaths and byways during construction and the impact on wildlife and archaeology.
"We're not Nimbys, but we are against losing our entire backyard.
"It would be like living inside a power plant."
MORE: Lakenheath solar farm makes £308k for local services in year oneSunnica has invited the public to take part in a series of eight non-statutory public consultation events on its proposals, with the final one taking place in Isleham on Friday.
The company said the project is at an early stage and all views will be considered ahead of a further consultation later in the year.
A spokesman for Sunnica said: "We are consulting at an early stage in scheme development because we want to gain valuable feedback which will help us prepare the design of our plans.
"We encourage as many people as possible to take part in the consultation and share their views.
"Following the consultation, we will consider all views we receive, continue our technical assessments, and prepare our scheme design.
"We will present more information on this at a further, statutory, consultation later in the year."
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