PLANS to build a solar farm the size of 34 football pitches on green belt land has angered residents.
Flanchford Solar Park Limited has applied for permission to install thousands of solar panels on a 60-acre site stretching across three fields to the north and east of Flanchford Farm, off Clayhall Lane in Reigate.
Dowsett Mayhew Planning Partnership, which has drawn up the planning document on behalf of Southern Solar Limited which will install the farm, estimates the site will generate enough electricity to power 3,500 homes.
A 2m high security fence, CCTV and new access tracks for each field, which are currently used for arable farming, are also proposed.
Michael Chivers, whose house off Clayhall Lane overlooks the proposed site, said in a letter to the Mirror: "An area of great beauty and designated as worthy of protecting will simply turn into an ugly industrial site."
Mr Chivers, 62, also expressed concerns about flooding and added the fields are currently "hugely" popular with all kinds of walkers.
Writing to Reigate and Banstead Borough Council, which will decide whether to grant the scheme planning permission, Graham Aslet, of Clayhall Lane, said it was "difficult to envisage any development which would destroy the beauty and character of this area more effectively than the erection of a 60-acre solar farm, as is proposed in this planning application."
Dowsett Mayhew Planning Partnership says the south of England is well-suited to the installation of solar farms because of the "strength of sunshine hours relative to the more northerly parts of the UK".
It added the site had been selected because it has a connection point to the national grid and the "necessary infrastructure capacity".
But in another submission to the council, Paul Rambridge, of Clayhall Lane, argued against the application.
He wrote: "I would encourage people to look at pictures of such installations and then place such an eyesore in such a location. "There are already local area flooding problems which have been at their worst recently."
Sarah Finch, a Green Party councillor and member of the council's planning committee, said: "It's a green belt site.
"We are obviously in favour of renewable energy but it has to be the right proposal and the right site.
"The green belt should be protected from development of any kind unless there are exceptional circumstances which I do not think there are in this case."
A date for when the application will go to the council's planning committee has not yet been set.
To comment on the proposal, go to planning.reigate-banstead.gov. uk/online-applications and use case reference 14/01297/F
