A second, huge solar farm planned for 220 acres of land near Chippenham has been submitted - prompting rapid local objection.

Eden Renewables submitted a planing application for the solar farm at Leigh Delamere - just after another bid went in for the 200 acre site at Forest Gate.

Stanton St Quinton Parish Council met to consider the application on July 14 and voted unanimously to oppose the application, followed by a unanimous rejection from Yatton Keynell parish council.

The chair of the meeting roundly criticised Eden for their 'complete failure' to engage or consult with anyone in Stanton St Quinton, which is on one of the proposed routes for construction vehicles to access the development site.

Grittleton Parish Council met on July 20 - and rejected the application. Most of the development site is within Grittleton Parish.

Eden was represented at the meeting by CEO, Harry Lopes.

One person at the meeting described his performance as: “What can only be described as a faltering response which addressed none of the issues raised and moreover demonstrated a woeful lack of preparation and understanding of his own plans. His approach was to fob us off with appeals to the climate crisis.”

Eden’s PR Sophy Fearnley-Whittingstall is drumming up support for the scheme in neighbouring counties.

She posted this on the West Berks Climate Action Network Facebook:

"Would any of you like to support the Leigh Delamere solar farm, just down the M4 from West Berks in Wiltshire? There are a lot of objections and we need to redress the balance. It's a great site which should benefit from the green electricity generated to provide ultra-high speed EV chargers."

Eight parish councils have written a joint letter to Wiltshire Council demanding action on the proliferation of solar farms in the county.

Bremhill, Dauntsey, Hankerton, Kington St. Michael, Langley Burrell Without, Minety, Oaksey, Yatton Keynell have all signed - saying urgent planning policy is required for industrial scale solar and battery energy storage system developments.

Cllr Nick Botterill, Cabinet Member for Development Management, Strategic Planning and Climate Change said: “ I am aware of the concerns of many residents and parish councils in the light of the recent spate of new applications and the cumulative effect these could have on the area.

“The Wiltshire Core Strategy is the current development plan for the area and does contain planning policies that relate to standalone renewable energy installations in addition to policies that relate to landscape and heritage matters.

“The issue of whether the existing policy on standalone renewable energy installations needs to be amended in any way (including the relative balance between brownfield and greenfield provision) is one that will be properly addressed through the forthcoming Wiltshire Local Plan, which will be consulted upon in 2022."