'Glare and glint' fear in solar panel row

A proposed solar farm could lead to problems with "glare and glint", objectors fear.

Lightsource bp resubmitted its application for the 92-hectare (227-acre) site near Burnhope, County Durham, following an earlier judicial review ruling the county council's decision to approve it was "unlawful".

Campaigners have argued the newly proposed farm is the same size and still contains 110,640 panels.

However, the developer said it had improved landscaping to minimise visual impacts and the project would provide £500,000 in community benefits.

Up to 14 fields near the village could be overlaid with panels, including areas near the Chapman’s Well nature reserve, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

An objection from one local resident said: "Birds and wildlife will lose their home.

"The people of Burnhope have made it perfectly clear they do not want this thing to go ahead, anyone with any common sense whatsoever will understand why."

Another objector, Victoria Dodd, warned of the "huge" detrimental impact on the village.

"The sheer scale of the proposed development is intimidating," she said.

"This is an industrial-sized development in a tiny village.

"The glare and glint imposed is beyond what is reasonable to residents who live so close by."

Lightsource bp said in a statement: "Any notable effects on landscape character or visual receptors as a result of the proposed development would be confined to relatively short stretches of local footpaths, bridleways or roads either within or directly adjacent to the site and to some limited residential receptors in close proximity."

They added although some landscape and visual effects were "inevitable", they would be "localised and limited in nature".

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