Your Member of Parliament can press the Secretary of State on the screening challenge, raise solar-siting policy in Parliament, and write to Herefordshire Council on your behalf. One letter, written in your voice, sets all three in motion.
An MP can act on a constituency case from three angles at once. Your letter asks for all three.
DVAG has lodged a Regulation 5(6)(b) request asking the Secretary of State to substitute the Council’s 22 April screening direction. A letter from your MP, supporting that request, lands in the same inbox at a much higher reading priority.
Brownfield, rooftops, contaminated land, lower-grade agricultural land. National policy already prefers all of these over heritage landscapes. A written question or debate intervention naming this case forces a Government answer.
MPs writing to councils as constituents carry weight on a planning file. Your MP’s letter goes in alongside the public objections and is read by officers and members alike when the application is determined.
Treat it as a starting point and personalise generously. If you spot an error, email admin@dinedorvag.org.
Enter your postcode and we’ll look up your current MP. The letter below will then be addressed to them by name. We don’t store your postcode.
Read it through, copy it, and personalise the lines about your own connection to the landscape. The asks are marked in the body so you can scan straight to them.
Dear Member of Parliament,
I am writing as your constituent about a proposal that has alarmed our community. [INSERT A SENTENCE OR TWO ABOUT WHO YOU ARE AND HOW LONG YOU HAVE LIVED HERE. For example: "I have lived in Dinedor for the past fifteen years, on [STREET], and walk the footpaths around the application site weekly."]
ILOS New Energy UK Limited, the UK subsidiary of the pan-European solar developer ILOS (headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany, and majority-owned by AXA IM Alts), has set out plans for a 82-acre industrial-scale solar generating station on working farmland at Dinedor (HR2 6LG). The site sits in the immediate setting of Dinedor Camp (an iron age scheduled monument that has held our skyline for over two thousand years) and on the line of the Rotherwas Ribbon, a Neolithic ceremonial monument the Herefordshire County Archaeologist has described as "apparently so far unique in Europe".
Herefordshire Council screened the proposal out of an Environmental Impact Assessment on 22 April 2026. Dinedor Village Action Group has lodged a formal request under Regulation 5(6)(b) of the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017, asking the Secretary of State to substitute that screening direction. That request is currently under consideration.
I am writing to ask three things of you.
That you write to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government in support of DVAG's screening direction request, asking that the proposal be properly assessed under the EIA Regulations given the cumulative significance of the heritage, landscape and ecological sensitivities at this site.
That you raise solar-siting policy in Parliament, with this case as a worked example. A 30 MW industrial generating station, proposed on active agricultural land in a parish containing eleven nationally-designated heritage assets, on the immediate fringe of the Wye Valley National Landscape, within the catchment of an unfavourable-declining Special Area of Conservation, sets a national precedent. Brownfield, rooftop and lower-grade alternative sites remain widely available.
That you write to Herefordshire Council expressing concern about this proposal, and ask to be notified when any planning application from ILOS New Energy UK Limited is validated, so that you can be aware of the consultation window when it opens.
[INSERT A PARAGRAPH IN YOUR OWN WORDS ABOUT WHY THIS SITE MATTERS TO YOU PERSONALLY. A SPECIFIC DETAIL (A WALK, A VIEW, A MEMORY, SOMETHING YOUR CHILDREN OR PARENTS DID HERE) IS WORTH MORE THAN A PARAGRAPH OF GENERAL FEELING.]
I would welcome the opportunity to meet at your next constituency surgery, or to provide further detail by phone or email at your convenience.
Yours sincerely,
[YOUR FULL NAME] [YOUR ADDRESS] [POSTCODE] [YOUR PHONE NUMBER OR EMAIL]
MPs and their staff sift hundreds of letters a week. These details lift yours into the “reply needed” pile.
Posted letters from constituents still carry the most weight in an MP’s office. The address is The House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA, with the MP’s name on the envelope. Email is acceptable; post is better.
MPs only act for their own constituents. Including your full address with postcode in the first paragraph confirms that immediately and routes your letter to the right caseworker.
A sentence about how this landscape figures in your life carries more weight than another paragraph of policy. Your daily walk, your view, the path your children take. The personal detail is what staff highlight for the MP.
Constituents have a right to attend their MP’s surgery. Asking for a meeting (in person, by phone, or by video) at the end of the letter signals seriousness and gives the office a concrete next step.
Letters from named constituents with full addresses are read or summarised. Form letters and copies are flagged as a campaign. Personalising your letter, even by a sentence or two, materially changes how it’s handled.
Write anyway. MPs respond to constituent volume regardless of party. A clear, polite letter from someone who isn’t a party supporter often lands harder than from someone who is.
If you want your concern on the planning record, send a separate letter to Herefordshire Council. The toolkit page has six templates for that. Do both, on different days, if you have the time.