Third Revolution Projects worked with Sonnedix Bengrove Ltd to secure planning permission via planning committee for a 25-hectare solar farm located in Tewkesbury Borough in October 2024. The proposed development is located near the village of Sandhurst near Gloucester and is expected to export 15MW of solar power – enough to power around 5,700 homes.

The proposals faced considerable planning challenges, including flood risk, ecology, heritage assets and cumulative impacts with an adjacent solar farm. Any of these could have resulted in refusal of the application and so the TRP team worked closely with the design team, officers and stakeholders to minimise impacts and to demonstrate that the development’s benefits outweighed any remaining harms.

With the site being located in Flood Zones 2 and 3, TRP worked closely with flood risk consultants and the Environment Agency to achieve a design that placed all sensitive electrical equipment outside of the flood plain and ensured that the development would not increase flood risk elsewhere in a locality where flooding is a significant concern for the community.

During the determination of the application the EA referred to the proposals as

“a good example of delivering both an appropriate and sustainable development for the use proposed that should be used as best practice when considering similar developments”.

TRP worked closely with ecologists to ensure that all biodiversity assets were appropriately protected, and the layout left areas free of development so that the development could incorporate appropriate habitat for ground-based breeding birds such as skylarks.

TRP also addressed heritage considerations through collaboration with a heritage specialist, Historic England and the LPA’s Conservation Officer to ensure that impacts to the setting of the adjacent Wallsworth Hall (a grade II* listed building) were effectively mitigated.

A public right of way passes through the site, where some impact on user amenity needed to be mitigated. This was achieved through planting of a new hedge to screen the development from view and create a wide corridor for walkers through part of the site.  

Although the proposals gained significant public interest, there was no opposition to the proposals at planning committee, where members recognised the importance of renewable energy projects like this in tackling climate change and noted the steps we had taken to address all the challenges and constraints the site presented.

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