We love Shropshire. Its quiet lanes and ancient hedgerows, the owls that still nest in old oak trees, the skylarks rising over fields that have fed people for generations. Shropshire's unspoilt land is being eyed up, acre by acre, for industrial solar...
We believe there's a better way to go green than paving over the countryside we all love.
The Proposed Solar Farm site..
130 acres of unspoilt countryside between Walton and Onibury, near Craven Arms, farmed with the environment in mind for decades, and home to breeding Skylarks and a Barn Owl roost going back generations.
A proposal now threatens to cover this land in a 20-22 megawatt industrial solar installation.
MEET THE FARMER...
This is Rob Alderson, tenant farmer at Upper Walton Farm — home to skylarks, barn owls, Great Crested Newts and 260+ recorded species. Rob has farmed here for decades, backed by a fifty-year soil record confirming some of the best agricultural land in the country.
The solar farm would remove around 40% of his arable land and 60% of his pasture from production for up to 40 years. As a tenant, Rob gets no compensation for that loss.
This is what we could lose
Productive Farming Land
This land has been farmed with the environment in mind for decades, not against nature, but alongside it. It's some of the best agricultural land in the country, still feeding people today. Losing it to industrial infrastructure means losing food security we can't simply replace.
Add your voice. Over at change.org 131 people have already said no to losing 130 acres of nature-rich Shropshire farmland to an industrial solar development. Every signature builds the case that this is the wrong site, and helps show Shropshire Council just how strongly local people feel.