Latest news with #BlenheimEstate
Daily Mail
06-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Locals' fury over plans to build huge solar farm on idyllic countryside made famous by The Vicar of Dibley
Plans to build an industrial-sized solar farm on countryside made famous by The Vicar of Dibley have sparked fury among locals, who claim it will ruin the 'quintessentially English view'. The row centres on a 97-hectre solar project which is planned for fields in Oxfordshire that feature in the opening credits of the iconic 1990s BBC sitcom starring Dawn French. The landscape, made up of patchwork fields, farmland and small villages, is also loved by the thousands of commuters who travel up and down the M40 to London. The proposed site is located next to Postcombe, near Thame - a village made up of just 120 houses, a garage and a pub - and can be seen from the motorway. Locals have described the potential impact of the solar farm, which would consist of large panels mounted nearly 10ft off the ground, as 'devastating' and 'frightening'. They have also raised concerns that the Labour government's drive towards Net Zero emissions will mean the plans are pushed through regardless of their objections. There are currently several plans for large solar farms in the pipeline for approval across the UK. These include the enormous £800million Botley West project in Oxfordshire, which is set to spread across the Blenheim Estate where Sir Winston Churchill was born. Local Bob Massie, who lives in Postcombe and used to work in video production, said the plans for the solar farm are 'frightening'. He told the Daily Mail: 'It is a fantastic view. It is one of only 12 such views protected in the country nationally. 'The solar farm would be just be truly devastating. It's quite frightening, really. 'Ultimately the view is so beautiful that Richard Curtis chose it as the opening title to The Vicar of Dibley. 'He chose that view because it was quintessentially English, and it was. It was showing a quintessentially English view with fields and villages.' He added: 'I see this view as like the Sycamore Gap tree. I would say this is another national treasure and once it has gone, it has gone forever. 'There is no getting it back.' Mr Massie also raised concerns about the type of solar panels that would be used for the site. He said: 'These are not just the sort of solar panels that you might put on your roof. They are enormous. The whole site is enormous. 'People think of solar panels as being the things that you put on on domestic roofs. These are whacking great industrial solar panels, and it is a vast area.' The plans for the solar farm have been developed by private company Solar2 and are currently being considered by South Oxfordshire District Council. Locals have until the end of the month to lodge their objections - but some fear the plans will be pushed through anyway. Postcombe resident and parish councillor John Poole said: 'We're trying to raise the awareness within the villages and encourage people to have their say on the planning portal. 'We think it is unlikely that South Oxfordshire District Council will support the application because of the national landscape and the protections in place. 'However, it is approved and it goes to appeal it could be down to Ed Miliband saying oh well we have a climate emergency and we need Net Zero.' Mr Massie also raised concerns about whether the application would be pushed through. He said: 'This is not just any view. It is a recognised area of outstanding natural beauty. It's also protected locally by the planning plans and policies. 'I think maybe in the late eighties or something they tried to put a service station in that same sort of area. 'That was thrown out because it was going to spoil the view. There's lots of protections on it. 'I'm hoping that with all these policies protecting it, that will ultimately prevail but you never know with these things. 'Planning regulations under the new the Labour government are apparently going to be simplified and perhaps development that wasn't going to be allowed will be.' Locals have also raised concerns that plans for the site include temporarily blocking a funeral path used to transport coffins from Postcombe to the nearby village of Lewknor. Footpaths in the area close to the proposed site are also used and loved by families and dog walkers. Mr Poole said: 'The solar farm is going to be in fields that have the local footpath that connects Postcombe to Lewknor. 'It's used by a lot of villagers to go between the villages and is a place where people walk their dogs. 'So from our point of view it does impact our daily lives. It's our views, it's our walks. 'When you look over the fields and towards the village all you are going to see is glaring solar panels.' He explained that people in Postcombe are not against renewable energy but are simply opposed to the location of the proposed solar farm. Mr Poole said: 'Practically all the villages here are against the solar farm being built but we are not against renewable energy. 'People in the villages have solar panels on their houses, or they've got electric cars, or both. 'And as a parish, we're just putting solar panels onto our village hall. 'What we don't want is a solar farm thrown upon us that's generating electricity, which is going to be sent to the National Grid or somewhere that doesn't benefit us.'
Telegraph
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Kelly Hoppen: ‘My grandson is the unexpected love affair of my life'
How do famous names spend their precious downtime? In our weekly My Saturday column, celebrities reveal their weekend virtues and vices. This week: Kelly Hoppen 6am I get up so early during the week that I'll still wake at six, but I'll clamber out of bed, go downstairs and make hot water and lemon and two coffees, then come back to bed, which is a wonderful feeling. I'll always try to wake my husband John [Gardiner, a retired businessman] and then we chat, watch silly things on TikTok and hang out in bed. 8am In London, we do weights and stretches at the gym, but if we're in the country we walk and talk about everything for a good two hours, anywhere not too muddy without too many hills. We often walk around the Blenheim Estate [in Oxfordshire]. 10am I love to cook in the country and make a nice breakfast: poached eggs on what John calls 'not bread' – my seed bread, which he says is like cardboard. I came late to the table with cooking and I do enjoy it. Then I'll have another coffee, take my vitamins and Chinese herbs, have a shower and get dressed. 11am We'll hang out at home, where I've got better at relaxing – it's only taken me 60 years. I try to see all my family [daughter Natasha and stepdaughters Savannah and Sienna Miller] but it's impossible to get everyone together in the same place, so it's normally different parts of the family at different times. I'm filled up with love, because I saw my grandson, who is eight, on Friday. I pick him up from school and hang out with him until he goes to bed. The kind of grandma I am is a 'spoil-y' one. He just melts my heart, it's the unexpected love affair of my life. I love my daughter with all my body and soul, and she's created a little mini version of her. It's just magic. 1pm Lunch at the café at Quince and Clover [in the Cotswolds ], or Soho Farmhouse, where we'll meet up with friends and have a glass of wine. I love Persian food and order the chicken with yogurt and sweetcorn or, if we eat in the main barn, salmon and vegetables. 4pm We can get through an entire box set from Saturday to Sunday. I'm known as the detective on Netflix; I always find something I know John will love, though I spend the entire time saying: 'Are you watching it? Put your phone down.' It's like having a teenager. I get scared of things, so I need to know he's watching it, as it makes me feel protected. We watched Landman, which was phenomenal, and Yellowstone. In fact, we've watched everything. 6pm I'll do the prepping before having friends over for dinner. We have an old barn and we'll have drinks out in the courtyard. It takes me about 20 seconds to lay the table. I pick pretty flowers from the garden and arrange them down the centre. I love tableware. I use a combination of different plates and glasses, and light the candles. All the scented candles from my latest exclusive homeware collection for M&S are in my house. Cushions are the other thing I can never get enough of. 7pm If the weather's nice, we'll eat outside. My favourite dish is baked salmon or sea bass, and I put all my vegetables into oven dishes, sprinkle them with olive oil and rock salt, and bake them very, very high so they get crispy. I'll do roast potatoes for the boys, not the girls – I'm careful, I try to eat healthily, though I'm about to go to Milan so that might just go out of the window. Then I will do a cheese platter, crumble or pavlova. John is in charge of the wine and the dishwasher. It's a marriage made in heaven. 10pm I like to soak in the bath, and I listen to music all the time, so I'll put my playlist on. I like a bit of R'n'B. 10.30pm I sleep really well, though there are days when I don't, but getting up at 5.45 most mornings to go to the gym helps. I tend not to exercise on Sundays and will go to watch my grandson at his horse-riding lessons instead.
Daily Mail
07-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Campaigners call on King Charles to help them stop Britain's biggest solar farm as £800m 3,500-acre project is set to spread across Winston Churchill's Blenheim birthplace
Campaigners have called on King Charles to help them stop Britain's biggest solar farm set to spread across the Blenheim Estate where Sir Winston Churchill was born. The £800million Botley West project is expected to cover almost 3,500 acres of land in Oxfordshire with solar panels. This includes 2,000 acres of the Blenheim Estate, which the Duke of Marlborough's half-brother Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill, who runs the property, has agreed to lease. Locals branded the plans an outrage and Tim Summer has written a letter to the King citing an act from the early 18th century to explain that he must intervene. He claimed that the Blenheim Estate does not officially own the land, explaining that it is leased by the Crown to the Duke of Marlborough. He supports this claim using the 1705 Queen Anne Act of Parliament, which gave the Blenheim Estate to John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough. Mr Summer said: 'Leasing and giving ownership of Blenheim land to a third party who will directly enjoy financial benefits is against the 1705 Queen Anne Act. 'I therefore humbly ask that the Crown steps in to enforce its ownership of the Blenheim Estate as Queen Anne intended and refuses the Blenheim Estate land to be handed over to any third party.' Since May, the Planning Inspectorate has been examining the scheme and will eventually send a recommendation to Energy and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband. The King, a lifelong environmental campaigner has not commented on the Botley West project. But the argument was presented at a hearing in Oxford and the Planning Inspectorate has asked for further clarification from Blenheim. A spokesperson for the estate said: 'We are aware of the comments made during the public examination which are not correct in relation to this project.' The King, has installed solar panels at Windsor Castle and a solar farm on a former horse grazing paddock at Sandringham. If the Blenheim Palace plan goes ahead, protesters said children being born now will be middle-aged before they see the green fields surrounding their homes. Meanwhile, Blenheim Estate is set to make £128million from leasing their land to German company Photovolt Development Partners (PVDP), which has created UK company SolarFive Ltd specially for the project. At the moment Blenheim are said to make £150 per acre per year from its land. PVDP said the going rate for leasing land for solar panels is £1,000 per acre, a 567 per cent increase. Mark Owen-Lloyd the director of PVDP said: 'Should the project be granted consent, Photovolt will become one of many tenants of the Blenheim Estate, who have leased their land for centuries. 'The restrictions apply only to the World Heritage Site that is Blenheim Palace, which will of course have no solar panels installed on it.' More than 11,000 homes across 15 villages within a mile of the panels will be affected, with the panels visible from most of the land in the 60 square miles surrounding the massive solar farm.
Telegraph
05-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
King asked to intervene in plans to build Britain's biggest solar farm
The King has been asked to intervene to halt plans to build Britain's biggest solar farm. A large portion of the project will be built on the 12,000-acre Blenheim Estate, where Winston Churchill was born. The £800 million Botley West project is set to cover almost 3,500 acres of land across Botley, Woodstock and Kidlington in Oxfordshire. The Planning Inspectorate is examining the scheme and will make a recommendation to Ed Miliband, the Energy and Net Zero Secretary, within six months. Locals have been campaigning against the plans but now one of them, Tim Summer, has written a letter claiming an act from the early 18th century means the monarch should step in. Mr Summer's arguments are based around the 1705 Queen Anne Act of Parliament, which gave the Blenheim Estate to John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough. Mr Sumner claims the Blenheim Estate does not officially own the land and that the 1705 Act states it should not be used for any purposes other than the duke's. As such, Mr Sumner maintains that 'since the Crown leases land to the duke, the Crown must be consulted'. He added: 'Leasing and giving ownership of Blenheim land to a third party who will directly enjoy financial benefits is against the 1705 Queen Anne Act.' Mr Sumner added: 'I therefore humbly ask that the Crown steps in to enforce its ownership of the Blenheim Estate as Queen Anne intended and refuses the Blenheim Estate land to be handed over to any third party.' The King, a lifelong environmental campaigner, has called for a rapid increase in renewable energy and is striving to make the Royal Household net zero by 2030. He has installed solar panels at Windsor Castle and a solar farm on a former horse grazing paddock at Sandringham. His Majesty is yet to respond to the Botley West row but the arguments concerning the Crown were presented at a recent hearing in Oxford. The Planning Inspectorate has asked for further clarification from Blenheim. A spokesman for the estate said: 'We are aware of the comments made during the public examination which are not correct in relation to this project.' Mark Owen-Lloyd, director of Photovolt, the company behind the project, said: 'Should the project be granted consent, Photovolt will become one of many tenants of the Blenheim Estate, who have leased their land for centuries. 'The restrictions apply only to the World Heritage Site that is Blenheim Palace, which will of course have no solar panels installed on it.' The Duke of Marlborough, a Reform UK backer, is said to be opposed to the project. The 12th Duke, known as Jamie Blandford, is a member of Reform, which believes that 'productive land must be farmed, not be used for solar farms or rewilding'. However, the Duke's chequered past involving drug addiction and multiple spells in prison saw him lose control of the family seat in 1994. His legal control of the Blenheim Estate is significantly limited because he is not a trustee of the Blenheim Palace Heritage Foundation, which operates the World Heritage site. The estate itself supports the potentially lucrative project, from which it is predicted to earn about £1,000 an acre for each of the 40 years that Photovolt leases the land. Mr Sumner, who went to Parliament to see some of these acts first-hand, said he was motivated to do the research because of his interest in his local area's past and the solar farm. Professor Alex Rogers, chairman of Stop Botley West, said this letter has questioned 'the idea that the developer can do whatever they want with the land'. Earlier in 2025, Mr Miliband was accused of breaking the ministerial code after his department approved an application for a solar farm owned by the millionaire Labour donor Dale Vince. The Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero signed off on Heckington Fen Solar Park, a 524-hectare solar farm in Lincolnshire which is owned by Ecotricity, Mr Vince's green energy company. Ecotricity has donated £5.4 million to Labour since 2021, making Mr Vince one of the party's most prominent business backers. The energy department said it was Lord Hunt, a minister, and not Mr Miliband who was responsible for signing off on the solar farm. A spokesman added: 'No rules have been broken. Political donations have no influence over how planning applications are considered.' Mr Vince also rejected suggestions the approval was politically motivated and said the site would create hundreds of jobs.
