East Staffordshire Borough Council has voted unanimously to grant planning permission for a 5MW solar farm on land at Dove View, near Marchington in Staffordshire.
Greenlight Environmental Consultancy provided the combined landscape and visual assessment, ecology and tree advice for the development.
The site will benefit from a range of biodiversity enhancements, including new species-rich grassland and wildflower planting, invertebrate and amphibian habitats, bird and bat boxes, and bee hives. The development plans also include new hedgerow and tree planting to assist in providing visual screening for the development, and further wildlife habitat. Overall, this will provide significant benefit for local wildlife and contribute to the landscape character of the site and the wider valley. Sheep grazing, the current farm activity, is proposed to resume once the development is installed.
The solar farm will provide the local electricity needs of approximately 1,515 average UK households and will save in the region of 2,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year
