00:00So Tash, if you could just introduce yourself and say why you're here today.
00:04Hi, I'm Tash Hooper. I grew up in this area and I've been working with the Carland Action Group
00:09because we're here to say that Cornwall's had enough of these vast solar panel farms' developments
00:15that are not really delivering a benefit for the local community.
00:18So we're trying to represent the local community and overturn this decision.
00:23And Nick, you're a local farmer, aren't you? And you're worried about the loss of agricultural land.
00:28Primarily, yeah. I mean, there's so many concerns about this development.
00:31But for me, I have a real fear about how we're going to feed ourselves in the future.
00:36And of course, this is being mooted, really. If it's approved, it will be Cornwall's largest solar farm, won't it?
00:42Give us a sort of idea of the scale of it.
00:45Well, we're looking at how many acres, Nick?
00:47Just over 200 acres, isn't it?
00:49200 acres. And up to date, we've seen around 50 to 60 acre farms.
00:52So we're talking four or five times the scale of what we've seen before.
00:56And I think that's going to be a shock.
00:58Then we have the fact that actually, from here, there are 10 separate solar farms.
01:03We'll be joining these up.
01:05So we're going to have vast areas of plastic taking away from food and farm structures.
01:11The real concern for me is the incoming infrastructure bill will give solar farms the strength for compulsory purchase of land adjoining.
01:22And I can see that in areas like this, where we've got so many, a proliferation even, that it will just become one mass solar farm once these compulsory purchase orders are realised next year.
01:36So you'll be making your feelings clear to the planning inspector today, then?
01:40Yeah, I think, for me, there's real problems with the efficiencies of solar.
01:44We're very fortunate in the West Country that we can do wind turbines.
01:47And there's offshore wind now. It's a much more effective way of generating that power that we need.
01:52But I do worry that we don't balance the demand for power with the demand for other aspects of food production and land use.
02:00So we're going to make our feelings very clear.
02:02And we won the day back in November.
02:04You know, the local council heard us.
02:06The democratic process has been followed, hasn't it?
02:09Exactly. And we were an 8-1 successful decision back in November.
02:13And here we are, fighting the same problems yet again, with a vast team of professionals against the little guys.
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