Plans for Angus solar farm with hundreds of objections recommended for refusal

Under the plan, the solar farm would occupy around 50 hectares of land at Cotton of Lownie near Forfar and will also feature a a 6MW battery storage plant.

It is expected it would generate power for Laird Bros, one of Scotland’s biggest concrete firms, who say it would be a UK first in the sector.

But the solar farm plan has proven to be controversial and locals have been fighting against it for the past two years.

Hundreds of objections received

Over 200 letters of objection have been submitted against the proposals. with the loss of prime quality agricultural land and unacceptable landscape and visual impacts just some of the issues raised.

And Angus Council planning chiefs agree with the concerns, saying that the detrimental impact of the project overshadows its positives.

In a paper, which will go before the development standards committee on Tuesday, they wrote: “In summary, the proposal would deliver significant benefits, and there is a favourable policy context for renewable energy development.

“However, the relevant policy also requires proposals to have regard to landscape character, and it requires significant adverse landscape and visual impacts to be appropriately mitigated.

“Information submitted by the applicant confirms that this proposal would give rise to significant and adverse, landscape and visual impacts, and those impacts would not be localised, and in any case, they have not been appropriately mitigated.”

Committee members have been recommended to refuse the application when they meet today.