Our small, independent Devon-based charity is fighting to stop the giant, international solar farm developers from ruining our countryside, taking out fields that are vital for sustainable food production and carbon storage. Please, donate to our Crowdfunder campaign to back our High Court challenge to overturn permission for this 164-acre solar development and create a war chest to fund future campaign actions:

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/devon-cpre

By helping us now, you will be helping to influence how councils elsewhere determine future applications for big solar developments that degrade valuable farmland. These applications are coming thick and fast across the UK and we believe there are far better places for miles of solar panels than on prime agricultural land.

Devon CPRE is enormously grateful to TV star John Nettles for spearheading our campaign against proposals for ever-larger solar farms that threaten to despoil Devon’s green and pleasant countryside. This video challenges ‘green’ claims that solar farms are low carbon and are a good use of agricultural land. They are not!

If solar farms are so good for converting sun to electricity to help solve a global issue, surely they should be sited in parts of the world where the sun is strongest, not on rainy Devon’s precious green farmland just for some to make a vast profit?

John Nettles lives near the village of Pyworthy in northwest Devon where residents, with our help, are fighting the development of a massive solar installation at Derril Water. Details of the planning decision can be found on the Torridge District Council website (reference 1/0249/2021/FULM).

This scheme and other current proposals throughout the county total around 1,000 acres of farmland that could soon disappear under black glass.

Help us keep Devon's fields green. Join us and join the campaign at www.cpredevon.org.uk/membership/