01-08-2025
Councils will work together to decide on Devon solar farm
Two council planning committees will work together to decide on an application for what is believed to be the largest ever solar farm application in northern District Council and North Devon Council will join forces as the application straddles the two districts. A planning application has been submitted but not yet validated and so is not currently in the public would have all nine of its planning committee members on the case and there would be nine of the 12 members of North Devon's, including a chairperson, who could make a casting was considered the best way forward given that 60% of the application site is in north Devon and 40% in Torridge.
Councillor David Brenton expressed concern that this system could result in Torridge's vote being "suppressed" but councillor Bob Hicks said he didn't see any issues, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) reported."As the alternating chairman of the joint planning policy committee working directly with North Devon, we get on extremely well," he Chris Leather said: "It makes sense as we are all singing from the same local plan anyway."He said he believed this to be largest solar farm application the two areas had ever 2023, the CPRE produced a map to show that nine of the largest solar farms, more than 100 acres, in Devon were in the local authority areas of Torridge, North Devon, Mid Devon and East Devon.
