Plans for the solar development were lodged in June (Image: BBC/PA)
Plans to build an industrial-scale solar farm on an Oxfordshire landscape immortalised in The Vicar of Dibley have been met with fierce local opposition. The thousands of commuters who travel up and down the M40 daily will know the sight well – the first glimpse of Oxfordshire rising up on each side of the heaving carriageways, an unfolding patchwork of green fields and farmland, dotted with small towns and villages. The Government’s drive towards achieving net zero emissions by 2050 has ushered in a boom of renewable energy sites across the county, however, with more than five currently in the pipeline for approval, including the 100-acre Botley West development, which would be the largest solar farm in Europe.
Despite indicating that such advances towards green energy would predominantly target brownfield and low-quality sites, ministers have had to fend off accusations that they are ploughing over picturesque English countryside in an effort to meet their self-imposed deadline. Such is the case for villagers in Postcombe, a tiny hamlet with just a garage and a pub, known for its picturesque countryside, most memorably depicted in the introduction to Richard Curtis’ 1994 sitcom, The Vicar of Dibley.
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The Vicar of Dibley’s opening credits sweep over the Oxfordshire countryside (Image: BBC)
The proposal would blight the Oxfordshire countryside, locals say (Image: Adam Gerrard)
Each episode of the BBC One comedy began with a sweeping camera shot of the Oxfordshire landscape on either side of the M40, ushering the viewer into its quintessentially English microcosm and eponymous fictional village, actually filmed in nearby Turville.
Depending on the outcome of an active planning application from developer Solar2, however, the same view could be blighted by a 97-hectre solar farm made up of three-metre-high rotating panels, some cases lying just metres from residents’ gardens.
“At the moment, it’s a beautiful stretch,” parish councillor John Poole, who has lived in Postcombe for 21 years, told the Express. “It was made iconic by The Vicar of Dibley, but it’s also a postcard for the county. On a lovely day, with the sun shining, there’s nothing better.
“But if this proposal goes ahead, the first thing people will see when they cross over from Buckinghamshire will be solar panels.”
Plans for the site, lodged with South Oxfordshire District Council in June, also include temporarily blocking a historic “funeral path”, traditionally used to transport coffins from Postcombe to a church in the neighbouring village of Lewknor, which sits on the other side of the M40.
Even a short-term closure of the route, which also provides villagers in Postcombe with access to a school and village hall, would impact the area’s sense of tight-knit community, Mr Poole warned.
John Poole stands in front of the proposed site, currently used as arable farmland (Image: Adam Gerrard)
Jill Evans has lived in Postcombe for over 70 years (Image: Adam Gerrard)
“The noise of construction and vehicles coming up and down narrow country roads would be hard to handle for a lot of people,” he said. “Some are thinking of moving away, although the indication is that you lose about 5% of the value of your hosue when it’s near a solar farm.”
“The Vicar of Dibley was about a small village with lots of characters, recognisable figures you’d talk and joke about,” he added. “And we’ve got that in abundance here. It would be a huge shame to see it disappear.”
Jill Evans, 92, who has lived in the village since 1952, when she and her husband began working as tenant dairy farmers, said the site’s current use as arable farmland added insult to injury.
“We used to farm right opposite where they want to build this new development,” she said. “It’s just terrible. It’ll be a massive change to the area at a time when we should be focused on growing food locally. I don’t know where they think their loaves of bread are going to come from.
“People won’t come for day-trips to look at solar panels. If you’re in the countryside, you want to see the countryside.”
Laura Robinson, 34, bought a new-build home on land adjoining the proposed development in 2020, with hopes of exchanging the urbanity of High Wycombe for the Oxfordshire countryside. Now, she says, she would consider moving again if money wasn’t an issue.
The entrance to Oxfordshire currently comprises green fields and farmland (Image: Adam Gerrard)
Some new-build homes lie just metres from the proposed site (Image: Adam Gerrard)
“When we moved here, we envisioned being surrounded by fields, not solar panels,” she said. “We try to use renewable energy as much as possible – our house has an air source pump and we have an electric car, but this kind of development is taking it too far.”
As well as being part of the county’s wider solar boom, the Postcombe and Lewknor solar farm would be just the latest renewable energy development along the M40, with Harlesford Solar Farm in Tetsworth and Cornwell Solar Farm near Stoke Talmage also built on farmland near the motorway.
The criticisms levelled by residents in Postcombe about the proposal’s visual obtrusiveness have been echoed in Reform UK’s new campaign opposing the “industrialisation” of the countryside in Lincolnshire, one of the councils the party seized control of in this year’s local elections.
Deputy leader Richard Tice described the crusade as “a fight to stop the desecration of our landscapes”, pledging not to “sit back as fields are ripped up [and] villages surrounded … in the name of reckless net zero targets”.
It comes after the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero revealed that renewable energy sources generated over half the UK’s power for the first time in 2024, in a new record for clean electricity.
Official figures showed that solar, wind, hydro and biomass generated 50.4% of UK power last year, up from 46.5% in 2023, while fossil fuels fell to a record low share of 31.8%, after Britain’s last coal plant shut in September.
The development is one of many appearing across Oxfordshire (Image: Adam Gerrard)
Reform UK has launched a campaign opposing the ‘industrialisation’ of the countryside (Image: PA)
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the UK was committed to investing in a “mix” of energy sources in response to pressure from US President Donald Trump about the march towards net zero during a meeting between the leaders this week.
Trump described Scotland’s large quantity of onshore wind turbines as “ugly monsters” during his visit, and questioned why the UK wasn’t obtaining “1,000 times more energy” by drilling for oil in the North Sea.
Starmer responded: “We believe in a mix. Obviously, oil and gas is going to be with us for a very long time, and that’ll be part of the mix, but also wind, solar and increasingly nuclear.
“As we go forward, the most improtant thing for the United Kingdom is that we have control of our energy and we have energy independence and security, because, at the moment, whatever the attributes and facilities in the North Sea, that is sold on the international market and we buy it back off the international market.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero said: “Families have seen their energy bills go through the roof due to our reliance on volatile gas markets controlled by dictators like Putin.
“Solar is central to our mission to become a clean energy superpower, delivering energy security for Britain so we can get bills down for good. All projects are subject to rigorous planning processes, and the views of the local community must be taken into account.”
Solar2 has been contacted for comment.