Odell Great Wood, an ancient 215 acre woodland just north of the village of Odell, is designated as a “Site of Special Scientific Interest”.

The solar farm, which will be surrounded by a steel fence up to 3m high and CCTV security cameras, will industrialise a rural agricultural area and seriously adversely affect the setting of this precious, unspoilt ash-maple woodland now very rare in southeast England.

The solar generating plant will stretch along the northern edge of the Great Wood and also border on other important woodland areas notably Brownage and Louse Acre Woods both of which are important County Wildlife sites.

If this application is granted, not only will the settings of these glorious woods be irreversibly damaged but we will lose good quality agricultural land into the bargain. CPRE Bedfordshire believes that industrial scale solar farms should be located on brown-field sites or on the rooftops of large buildings such as warehouses of which there are many in Bedfordshire. 

A PDF copy of our objection can be downloaded below.