ANOTHER solar panel farm in Teignbridge – occupying nearly 30 acres – has been given planning permission without a word of debate.

Teignbridge Council this week confirmed that planning permission had been given to Okehampton-based Sunfarming UK for the Bovey Road site at Chudleigh Knighton.

Consent for the proposal was given under the council’s delegated powers because no one had deemed it sufficiently contentious to flag it up for debate.

A larger 43-acre venture in Ashcombe outside Teignmouth also went ahead without any council discussion, but later was dismissed as an eyesore in a two-page spread in a national newspaper.

The Chudleigh Knighton project, which comes hot on the heels of the council’s refusal of a similar 42-acre enterprise at Higher Humber Farm in Bishopsteignton, prompted one district councillor to declare: ‘Enough is enough.’

Cllr Doug Hellier Laing, Teignbridge’s portfolio holder for economy and tourism, said: ‘I do feel we have reached saturation point with these solar farms. Visually, it’s now unacceptable. It’s a form of pollution.’

He said he backed alternative energy solutions, but the proliferation of farms across the Devon countryside was now a source of some concern.

One observer of the council scene complained: ‘A lot of councillors used to be quite keen on them. Now they are not. You just can’t put these farms anywhere. They are taking over our green and pleasant land. I think they’ve had their day.’

The Bishopsteignton scheme thrown out by Teignbridge is expected to be the subject of an appeal.

That prospect has saddened local shepherdess Denise Comyns whose family have lived in the area for 400 years.

She is urging local residents to fight the appeal in the hope the mistake of Ashcombe, just a few miles away, is not repeated at Higher Humber Farm at Rydons Cross.

‘People go up there and take photos of the views. It’s the most beautiful spot – and it will go if we don’t stop it. People need to know what is happening,’ she said.

But not everyone is complaining about the proliferation of solar farms. Hennock Parish Council, which raised no objection to the Chudleigh Knighton scheme on its patch, stands to earn £125,000 from the development over its anticipated 25 years-life – once it gets up and running.

But parish council chairman Janette Parker said no documentation had yet been signed to secure the ‘community benefit contribution.’

She said any money coming Hennock’s way would be spent on projects to benefit the local community.

‘We will be consulting with the community for their ideas,’ she said.