Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Berryhill community will get face-to-face consultation over giant solar farm

A solar farm near Errol, in Perthshire.

A face-to-face consultation will take place on contentious plans to build a huge solar farm in Berryhill.

Locals formed the Spare (Save and Protect Angus Rural Environment) group to oppose the plans, which could see the rural Angus site transformed with solar panels.

The Solar 2 plans could result in a solar farm the size of 300 football pitches.

Residents previously objected to developers holding an online-only consultation event.

Berryhill solar farm plans
A map of the site.

But a physical event has now been announced. It will take place at Fowlis East Hall on June 12.

While welcoming the event, Spare has doubled down on its opposition to the plans.

But supporters argue new solar arrays are an important part of Scotland’s energy mix and an essential part of hitting climate change targets.

Why are residents against the green energy plans?

A spokesman for Spare said face-to-face consultation should have been the situation “from the word go”.

They argue online consultation would have been “restrictive and unacceptable”.

Similar plans by Lightsource BP for the site fell through at the consultation phase.

The negative implications… are extremely concerning.”

Spare spokesman

“This is not a proposal for a few solar panels on the roof of someone’s house,” the spokesman said.

“This is a proposal to change 300 acres of sloping, arable land to industrial use by turning the land into a giant, highly visible, solar power station with 152,000 panels.

“The negative implications of these proposals for the local area, and beyond, are extremely concerning.”

Coronavirus guidelines

Solar 2 insists they were following coronavirus guidelines when planning online-only consultation, but after repeated calls to the Scottish Government were given the go-ahead to host a physical event.

Neil Lindsay, development director with Solar 2 said he was “looking forward” to meeting local people.

“They can speak directly to us and raise any questions they may have about the project.”

If plans go ahead, Berryhill solar farm would generate enough energy to power one in five Angus homes.

It will comprise of 152,000 panels and reach 2.25 metres high.

Community projects will receive £500 for every megawatt installed capacity on the site.

This could mean an annual £25,000 to community groups, or £1 million over the proposed 40-year lifespan of the solar farm.