Seven grounds.
One landscape
worth defending.

To the Planning Officer,

I am writing to register my formal objection to the proposed solar generating station on land at Dinedor, HR2 6LG.

The application site lies in the immediate setting of six designated heritage assets, within a parish containing eleven nationally-designated heritage assets in total:

(1) The Rotherwas Ribbon, a Neolithic and Early Bronze Age ceremonial monument, which the Herefordshire County Archaeologist has described as "apparently so far unique in Europe" and of "international significance".

(2) Dinedor Camp, an iron age scheduled monument with evidence of occupation from the second century BC into the first century CE, including Roman coins dated to 68 and 69 CE.

(3) The Site of Medieval Village (NHLE 1005324), a scheduled monument.

(4) Rotherwas Chapel (NHLE 1014880), a scheduled medieval chapel with the earthwork remains of an associated 16th-century country house.

(5) Dinedor Court (NHLE 1099600), an 18th-century Grade II listed building.

(6) The listed water pump beside Dinedor Court (NHLE 1180020).

Section 66(1) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 imposes a statutory duty on the local planning authority to have special regard to the desirability of preserving the setting of listed buildings, which applies to assets (5) and (6) above. The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 protects the scheduled monuments at (1)–(4). NPPF Chapter 16 (paragraphs 195–214) requires great weight to be given to the conservation of designated heritage assets, with the level of weight scaling with the significance of the asset. The Rotherwas Ribbon, on the County Archaeologist's own description, is a heritage asset of the highest significance.

An 82-acre industrial-scale solar generating station, situated at the foot of an iron age hillfort and on land that holds the buried archaeology of a Neolithic ceremonial monument of European significance, would cause substantial cumulative harm to the historic environment. The proposal should be refused on heritage grounds.

Yours faithfully,

To the Planning Officer,

I am writing to register my formal objection to the proposed solar generating station on land at Dinedor, HR2 6LG, on landscape and visual-amenity grounds.

The site sits approximately 1.2 kilometres from the Wye Valley National Landscape (formerly the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) and approximately four kilometres south-east of Hereford city centre. The proposal would place approximately 82 acres (33.32 hectares, or 47 football pitches) of solar arrays at the foot of Dinedor Hill, a prominent ridgeline. The site would be visible from public footpaths in the surrounding landscape and from elevated points within the Wye Valley corridor.

Section 85 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, as amended by the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, places a statutory duty on the local planning authority to seek to further the purposes of the National Landscape, including the conservation and enhancement of natural beauty. The visual envelope of a National Landscape extends well beyond its formal boundary; harm to its setting is a material consideration.

A solar generating station of this scale, in this location, would be plainly visible from within the National Landscape and would materially harm the wider Wye Valley landscape character. Once industrialised, this landscape does not recover within a forty-year operational lifetime. The proposal should be refused on landscape grounds.

Yours faithfully,

To the Planning Officer,

I am writing to register my formal objection to the proposed solar generating station on land at Dinedor, HR2 6LG, on the grounds that it would place industrial-scale development outside the boundary of the Hereford Enterprise Zone, in contravention of the Council's own established planning framework for industrial development in south Hereford.

For over a decade, Herefordshire Council has had a clear planning framework for where industrial-scale development should happen in this part of the county. The Hereford Enterprise Zone, established in 2011 and supported by a Local Development Order granting a presumption of automatic planning approval for industrial development within its boundary, covers approximately 100 acres and wraps the Rotherwas Industrial Estate. The Council renewed and extended the Order in 2019, expanding the Zone southwards by twelve acres. The Hereford (Rotherwas) Enterprise Zone Local Development Order 2025 has now extended that framework until 2030.

The framework's effect is clear: industrial development is encouraged within the Enterprise Zone boundary, and the working agricultural countryside south of the Zone is protected from such development. South of the Zone, that boundary has held for decades, with Sink Green Farm marking the line between the Zone and the agricultural countryside beyond.

The proposed solar generating station, at 82 acres (33.32 hectares) and up to 30 MW, is industrial-scale infrastructure. It would breach the boundary that has historically separated the Enterprise Zone from the agricultural countryside. It would establish a precedent that, once set, would invite further industrial proposals on agricultural land beyond the Zone, pushing the line of industrial use deeper into Dinedor parish than any previous expansion of the Enterprise Zone has managed.

NPPF Chapter 11 (paragraph 124) requires planning policies and decisions to promote an effective use of land in meeting the need for homes and other uses, including the use of brownfield, underutilised and previously developed land. The Council's own planning framework, expressed through the Enterprise Zone Local Development Order, identifies where industrial development belongs in this corridor, and where it does not.

The proposal should be refused on the grounds that it places industrial-scale development on the wrong side of the line drawn by the Council's own planning framework, and would set a precedent for further industrial encroachment into the agricultural countryside south of the Enterprise Zone.

Yours faithfully,

To the Planning Officer,

I am writing to register my formal objection to the proposed solar generating station on land at Dinedor, HR2 6LG, on biodiversity and ecological grounds.

The application site sits within the immediate hydrological catchment of the river Wye, which is designated as a Special Area of Conservation. The River Wye SAC has been formally classified by Natural England as in unfavourable-declining condition, principally on account of nutrient pollution and habitat loss.

The introduction of forty years of fencing, hardcore foundations, panel-shadow, and altered surface-water management across 82 acres of agricultural land is plainly inconsistent with the duties under regulation 9 (general duty) and regulation 63 (assessment of plans and projects likely to have a significant effect on a European site) of the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017, which require the local planning authority to secure favourable conservation status of European sites.

NPPF Chapter 15 requires that planning policies and decisions contribute to and enhance the natural environment, and that biodiversity net gain be secured through development. Since February 2024, mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain of at least 10% applies to most new developments under the Environment Act 2021. On the limited information made public to date, the proposal has not demonstrated measurable net gain commensurate with its scale, nor adequately addressed its cumulative contribution to pressure on the River Wye SAC.

The proposal should be refused on ecological grounds.

Yours faithfully,

To the Planning Officer,

I am writing to register my formal objection to the proposed solar generating station on land at Dinedor, HR2 6LG, on highways, residential-amenity and community grounds.

Dinedor parish has a resident population of approximately 300 people, in 134 houses. Vehicular access to the proposed site is via the B4399, a B-classified rural road which carries a 7.5-tonne weight restriction from the Holme Lacy Bridge through Dinedor parish, with onward access through single-track village lanes. A construction programme delivering 30 MW of solar generation across 82 acres would require sustained heavy goods vehicle movements that the local highway network is not engineered to accommodate without disproportionate impact on a small rural community.

In addition, the operational installation, with its 2-metre perimeter security fencing and associated infrastructure, would constitute a permanent and material change to the character of the village core and to the immediate amenity of residents. NPPF Chapter 12 requires planning decisions to ensure developments are sympathetic to local character and history, including the surrounding built environment and landscape setting.

The made Dinedor Neighbourhood Development Plan (28 July 2021), at paragraph 4.5 and at Appendix 1 Supporting Action 2, expressly identifies the 7.5-tonne weight restriction on the B4399 and the Parish Council's commitment to work with the Council and Police to enforce it. The proposal is inconsistent with the statutory development plan made by the parish.

The proposal should be refused on highways and amenity grounds.

Yours faithfully,

To the Planning Officer,

I am writing to register my formal objection to the proposed solar generating station on land at Dinedor, HR2 6LG. I want to be clear at the outset: I support the transition to renewable energy. My objection is to the location and scale of this specific proposal, not to renewables in principle.

National policy supports the deployment of renewable energy, but does not displace the need for proper consideration of alternative, less-sensitive sites. National Policy Statement EN-3 and Government guidance on solar siting specifically encourage the use of brownfield, previously-developed land, contaminated land, lower-grade agricultural land, rooftops and car parks before any resort to undisturbed agricultural landscapes of high heritage and landscape sensitivity.

The proposed site at Dinedor is in active agricultural use, lies in the immediate setting of multiple designated heritage assets within a parish containing eleven in total, sits on the immediate fringe of the Wye Valley National Landscape, and falls within the hydrological catchment of the River Wye SAC. It is, on any reasonable analysis, one of the more sensitive landscapes in Herefordshire.

Government policy is clear that solar development should avoid the use of Best and Most Versatile (BMV) agricultural land, classified as Grades 1, 2 and 3a under the Agricultural Land Classification system. NPPF paragraph 187 and footnote 65 require that the economic and other benefits of best and most versatile agricultural land be taken into account, with development on poorer-quality land preferred. The Ministerial Statement of 15 May 2024 reaffirmed that large solar projects should avoid BMV land where possible and target brownfield, contaminated, industrial and lower-quality agricultural alternatives. Recent research published by CPRE (July 2025) found that 59% of England's largest operational solar farms are on productive farmland, and 31% of the area covered is BMV agricultural land. This proposal sits squarely within that pattern.

The applicant has not, on the information made public to date, demonstrated that no less-sensitive alternative location is available or feasible.

The proposal should be refused on policy and alternative-sites grounds.

Yours faithfully,

To the Planning Officer,

I am writing to register my formal objection to the proposed solar generating station on land at Dinedor, HR2 6LG, on the grounds that it conflicts with the made Dinedor Neighbourhood Development Plan.

The Dinedor Neighbourhood Development Plan was approved at parish referendum on 24 June 2021 and made on 28 July 2021. It forms part of the statutory development plan for the parish under Section 38(6) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. Section 38(6) requires that planning applications be determined in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise.

The proposal conflicts with the made NDP in several respects:

(1) Policy F (rural environment and landscape) requires that development proposals protect and enhance the rural environment and landscape of the area, including the landscape setting of Dinedor village and the environmental quality of the parish's rivers, streams and brooks. An 82-acre industrial-scale solar generating station does the opposite.

(2) Policy G (heritage assets) requires conservation and enhancement of local heritage assets including lands adjoining Dinedor Camp and lands associated with the likely course of the Rotherwas Ribbon. The application site sits squarely within those identified areas.

(3) Policy J (tranquillity) requires that proposals respect Dinedor's rural environment and tranquillity. A 30 MW industrial generating station, operating for forty years, is incompatible with that policy.

(4) Paragraph 4.5 and Appendix 1 Supporting Action 2 expressly identify the 7.5-tonne weight restriction on the B4399 and the Parish Council's commitment to enforce it.

The proposal should be refused on the grounds that it conflicts with the made development plan and that no material consideration justifies a departure from it.

Yours faithfully,