A FARMER has announced plans to build a £4 million wood-burning power station on fields in Sevenhampton.

And he has invited hundreds of other nearby landowners to invest in the scheme and start growing the willow fuel it.

The project has already been awarded a £1 million grant from the National Lottery New Opportunities fund.

Provided planning permission is given, and enough investment can be attracted, it is planned to open the plant some time in 2005.

Rupert Burr wants to build the power station on the 153-acre Roves Farm. The two-megawatt power station would provide enough energy for 2000 homes.

Mr Burr is proposing to fund it by securing £500,000 of Govern-ment funding and persuading 250 farmers to invest £10,000 each.

They would each also provide 20 hectares of land to grow the willow fuel and become members of the Roves Fuel co-operative.

Willow has been chosen because it is Britain's fastest growing tree and can be harvested every three years. This form of energy production is said to be carbon neutral because all the carbon dioxide released when the wood is burned is used up by the growing trees.

It is being supported by the Government as part of its bid to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and tackle global warming.

Mr Burr invited every farmer in a 25-mile radius of his farm to attend a presentation on the project yesterday.

Some 200 turned up and he said he already has 50 interested in signing up with the scheme.

He said: "Farming in this area is not at all profitable, which is why many farmers are going out of business. After all the costs have been taken out, farmers should make at least £300 per hectare per year from this."

Along with the Government Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Mr Burr has set a deadline of just a month for farmers to decide whether or not to sign up with the scheme.

Farmer Richard Strange, 52, from Witney, said: "There's no future in producing food so I am very interested in this. My son would like to go into the business and this could be a way of securing its long-term future."

Craig Watton, 25, from Drayton, said: "I hope farmers will push forward with it but they are often scared of doing something new."

Forestry contractor Guy Newton, 40, from Shrivenham, said: "I think it is a brilliant idea there are 5,000 to 6,000 hectares of woodland in Oxfordshire which aren't managed at all."

In May 2001 plans for a similar scheme in Kingshill, Cricklade, were turned down by a Government planning inspector.

That larger plant encountered opposition because of the visual impact of its chimney.

Borough councillor for the area covering Roves Farm, Lisa Hawkes (Con, Highworth) said she was not aware of any opposition to the scheme, and added: "I think it's a brilliant idea."

The power station would take up an area of three acres and create two 20-ton lorry movements an hour during a 12-hour working day It would process a total of 90,000 tons of willow a year and provide about 30 jobs.