Poole residents react to solar farm proposal

A public consultation in Poole today regarding a proposed solar farm is currently underway.

The meeting is being held to voice any concerns that local residents have against the build, which will mainly focus on preserving the countryside of the proposed site.

Sue Allison, a local resident is worried about the environmental impact of the solar farm.

“My main concern is that it is adjacent to Upton Heath, which is a very special place with lots of rare invertebrates and wildlife.

“There shouldn’t be any building there. It’s industrialisation of an important site.

“In addition to that, it’s on greenbelt land, a very important area of land which is a strategic gap to stop the urban sprawl of Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch spreading into this little village here,” she says.

Another resident, Shannon Holmes believes that more green energy is a good thing, but she is still worried that it may be too close to residents who wish to keep the nature around them unspoiled.

“That’s a lot of space taken up, which technically could have been used for other things,” she says in regards to the solar farm that take up six fields worth of land.

“I wouldn’t want to look out my kitchen window and see it, but I know it’s got to go somewhere,” she says.

Lytchett Matravers and Upton councillor, Andrew Starr has been concerned with global warming for over twenty years and hopes that locals will be in favour of the proposal.

“We should have started doing this twenty years ago at least.

“Most of the councils, including Dorset council, have declared an environmental emergency.

“We have to do something but it’s possibly too late,” he warns.

The consultation meeting is scheduled to finish at 7pm this evening.

More on this story as it develops.