The West Sussex County Times reports:

The majority of Horsham district councillors opposed the development of solar farms proposed for Steyning, Ashurst and Partridge Green by three separate applicants at the Development Control Committee meeting on Tuesday April 15.

Although the three applications had to be considered separately and based on their own merits, councillors and residents claimed that the solar energy generators, as a whole, would impact on the rural landscape and set a precedent for future applications if approved, despite all having no objections from the South Downs National Park Authority.

Philip Circus (Con, Chanctonbury) said that the council spends much of its time discussing the aesthetic impact developments have on the South Downs, but when it comes to renewable energy that debate seems to go ‘out of the window’.

“I think we’re spoiling the countryside for no good reason and we should not be swept up onto this bandwagon of renewable energy,” he said.