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CLIVE ASLET

Solar panel ‘farms’ are a threat to our precious landscapes

The Times

At the weekend, I was lucky enough to visit Stour Provost in Dorset. It is an idyllic part of the country, where the river Stour winds through a sylvan landscape, past ancient churches and mills recorded in the Domesday Book. This is the kind of scene that England does so well. Each of the three villages overlooking it is a conservation area, packed with listed buildings.

But a snake has slithered into this paradise. An application has been made to build a solar farm along one side of the valley: a 21st-century intrusion that would destroy the soul-restoring loveliness of this historic and fragile place. “Farm” is a misnomer. It will be a power station, laid out with serried ranks of reflective panels, raised a