August 29, 2025
ABEI planning application submitted
Application for planning permission for Solar Farm only submitted to Vale of White Horse District Council #P25/V1646/FUL.
Key dates
Start Consultation Period – 29 August 2025
End Consultation Period – 4th October 2025
Target Decision Date 10th December 2025
May 22, 2025
ABEI response to Focus Group queries
- The cable route is to be confirmed and would form a separate application if planning permission were granted for the development.
- Flooding and Hydrology surveys are complete, but the hydrological model is still being run. Once this is complete a Flood Risk Assessment will be produced.
- There are no further archaeological findings of significance.
- Draft visualisations were made available online to show mitigation purposed for impact on the landscape. ABEI states: it is admittedly not possible to completely screen the development from all viewpoints.
- A new website is being created, hopefully to be up and running by next week [i.e. end of May 2025].
- No mention is made of a further Public Consultation.
April 2025
Coleshill Response
The Parish Council emailed ABEI requesting that developments be shared with the local community and suggesting a second public consultation should be held. ABEI replied that:
– the physical topographical survey has been completed
– LiDAR (remote sensing) data has been sourced from the Environment Agency
– the physical data is being combined with the LiDAR data to inform the hydrological model which should be available by the end of May
– once the model is complete the Flood Risk Assessment will be undertaken
– ABEI is in the process of finalising the layout before consultants draft landscape and visual, and heritage impact assessments
ABEI notes that the Parish Council would welcome a further drop-in session before an application is submitted.
March 2025
ABEI Response
ABEI met with the National Trust to present a full visualisation of the mitigations they are proposing for the visual impact on the landscape, and what this would look like from the key viewpoints surrounding the site area. A full flood impact assessment was due to be carried out imminently. The National Trust suggested ABEI should share developments made since the public consultation with the Parish Council and other consultees.
December 2024
Application Postponed
The Planning Application was not submitted as scheduled. The Parish Council learnt from the National Trust that the application had been postponed until Q1/Q2 2025 and that the National Trust was due to meet with ABEI in January 2025. This was postponed until March.
October 2024
Concerns
Coleshill Parish Council emailed ABEI with queries raised following the consultation. No response from ABEI was forthcoming until after the Parish Council sent the same queries by recorded delivery. ABEI replied that queries would be answered when relevant surveys had been undertaken.
September 2024
Public Consultation (short notice)
ABEI posted leaflets to local residents a few days in advance of a Public Consultation, a drop-in session in Coleshill. The session consisted of display boards, with members of ABEI present to answer questions. A planning application was due in December 2024.
Coleshill Solar Focus Group was formed to work alongside the Parish Council to address concerns raised by the proposal.
January 2024
Application submitted
…by developers ABEI to Vale of White Horse District Council for a Scoping Opinion Request.
(A scoping opinion request is a formal process where a person or organisation, before submitting a planning application for a project potentially requiring an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), asks the relevant Local Planning Authority for their opinion on the scope and detail of the information needed in the Environmental Statement (ES). This helps ensure the ES focuses on the most relevant aspects of the project’s environmental impacts.)
Vale of White Horse Decision Notice
NB. Requirement for alternative sites to be considered.
The submitted Scoping Report does not provide details of reasonable alternatives considered. As such, reasonable alternatives have not been considered at this stage by the LPA. The EIA should include a detailed consideration of reasonable alternatives to the development proposal. These should be considered in the ES and details provided of the options and choices made. (Vale of White Horse Decision Notice, 2 April 2024). We do not know whether alternatives have been considered.
February 2022
Application submitted
…by developers ABEI to Vale of White Horse District Council for a Screening Opinion for Environmental Impact Assessment
VWHDC decided that an Environmental Impact Assessment was required.
Read Screening Opinion lettter in the VWHCD Decision Notice.
Richard Palmer, Town Planning Manager at ABEI, expressed his disappointment to both the Vale of White Horse Local Planning Authority and the Coleshill Parish Council that the application had been made public.
Risks
Solar Farms
