A FONMON resident who could be set to see a huge solar farm built near his front door has raised strong objections to the plan.

Huw Thomas has lived in his property for 27 years. The house, which he shares with his wife and son, overlooks a scene of green fields and hedges.

However, that could soon be set to change after plans were revealed to build a new solar farm on land between Fonmon and Nurston.

Behind the plans is Low Carbon – an investment company which focuses predominantly on renewable energy projects. They have called the proposed project East Aberthaw Solar Farm.

“I think most of the people are in favour of green energy to a degree, but it is the location of the farm,” said Mr Thomas.

“It is on farmed fields in amongst houses when 500 yards to our right we have got quarries and brownfield sites.

“I certainly don’t feel as though it is in the right location because it is within a horseshoe of everybody’s houses.

“We have got flooding issues on the fields here and with everything else that is going on in the world, you would think that there is a reason to retain agricultural land and there are better locations to put a solar farm than where they are proposing it.”

The proposal, which is still in the pre-application stage, is deemed to be a Development of National Significance (DNS).

If an application is made, it will therefore be handled by the Welsh Government and not the Vale of Glamorgan Council.

Draft plans of the proposed solar farm show it to be about 98 acres in size, stretching from the fields encircled by Fonmon Road, Rockshead Lane and Port Road in the west to a field on the western edge of Cardiff Airport in the east.

Mr Thomas added: “I never wanted to be one of these people who said ‘not in my backyard’ until they actually wanted to go and build a solar farm outside my front window.

“If you look around the countryside, everywhere else appears to be well behind hedges, not visible from public spaces and that is fine, but don’t plonk it in amongst two little hamlets where everybody looks out on to those fields.

“Our neighbours have got two young kids. They are really upset about it all.

“They bought the house more recently, they bought it because of the location looking out on to green fields and if they have got solar panels in front of their house they are going to be absolutely devastated.”

If approved in line with the current plans, the proposed solar farm would be able to export about 35MW of electricity to the National Grid – enough to power 11,630 homes.

Head of project development at Low Carbon, James Hartley-Bond, said he was “extremely grateful” to those who turned up to the public consultation for Aberthaw East Solar Farm on June 16.

He said: “We received a great deal of really useful information and valuable feedback from local residents and stakeholders, which we will review alongside our ongoing technical assessments and surveys, thus helping us to refine our layout.

“The East Aberthaw Solar Farm project will help to meet the targets to tackle the climate emergency we are still in and provide enough clean, green energy annually to power approximately 11,600 homes each year, as well as removing 7,161 tonnes of CO2, which equates to the removal of approximately 3,800 cars off the road annually.”

“The site is Grade 3b, placing it outside the Best and Most Versatile (BMV) agricultural land which is defined as land falling in ALC grades 1 to 3a.

“We will continue to work with the local community to try mitigate any visual impacts through landscaping and refining the proposed design.  Once we have refined our proposals, we will return for a second phase of consultation and to present our updated plans this autumn.”