Photo voltaic farm plan would ‘wreck’ Vicar of Dibley view

Plans to construct a photo voltaic farm on countryside featured within the opening credit of BBC sitcom The Vicar of Dibley would “wreck” the view, opponents have mentioned.

Developer Solar2 needs to construct an 80 hectare (200 acre) photo voltaic farm on land close to the Stokenchurch Gap – the place the M40 scythes by the Chilterns.

The firm mentioned the 0.3 sq mile (0.8 sq km) growth – close to the Oxfordshire villages of Lewknor and Postcombe – would generate sufficient power to energy 16,500 houses.

But these against the proposals have mentioned the panels could be an “interruption to the landscape”.

Robert Massie, from Postcombe, mentioned: “It was chosen by Richard Curtis, who wrote the vicar of Dibley, specifically as the opening titles for the Vicar of Dibley because it was a quintessentially English view.”

He continued: “If you’re going to chose a place to plonk a massive industrial solar farm, for goodness sake, why put it there?”

Mr Massie mentioned the photo voltaic farm would “just wreck [the landscape] forever”.

If the plans had been authorized, he mentioned the “massive, whacking-great big” photo voltaic panels would “just hideously spoil the view”.

The proposed growth lies inside the protected Chilterns National Landscape and is one mile (1.6km) away from the Aston Rowant Nature Reserve.

Matt Thomson, from Chilterns National Landscape, mentioned reference to nature was “so important for people’s wellbeing” however could be “disrupted by the insertion of an industrial feature”, including the panels could be an “interruption to the landscape”.

Solar2 declined a BBC request to remark however the authorities mentioned photo voltaic power was “central to our mission to become a clean energy superpower”.

“All projects are subject to rigorous planning processes, and the views of the local community must be taken into account,” a Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson added.