A YORKSHIRE company has opened talks with Fenland Council about the prospects of securing consent for a 17 acre solar farm near March.

The scheme for the 7MW farm is about half the size of the solar farm proposed for the same area three years ago but ditched following concerns it was too near to a main road.

Now CSP Solar has taken up the proposals and it has asked Fenland Council whether than be exempt from a detailed- and expensive- environmental impact assessment to accompany a full application.

“Since this new scheme is only half the size previously proposed and has been relocated away from Wimblington the dynamics have altered considerable,” said a company spokesman.

“We consider the scheme does not require an EIA.”

The proposed site is on land east of Coneywood South Farm, Wood Street, Doddington, and on land refused permission by Fenland Council last year for a wind turbine.

CSP say their solar farm plans have been “shaped” by the council’s concerns raised in recent correspondence which focused on visual impact and the loss of agricultural land.

The new boundary, they say, is 400 metres from Wimblington Road and visual impact is now “negligible”.

The company says it will be using photovoltaic technology to allow the conversion of solar radiation into electricity.

It adds: “The site is not in an area identified or designated for its landscape character”.