PLANNERS have unanimously rejected a solar farm in East Cornwall which would be equivalent to the size of 20 football pitches.

Members of Cornwall's strategic planning committee said the size and scale of the proposal by developers Freetricity, on behalf of the applicant Chris Bond, was overbearing.

The controversial application was opposed by St Mellion Parish Council, the village's international golf resort and dozens of villagers.

One of the directors of the St Mellion Park Residents Association Nick Ford said this decision had given them confidence in the planning committee. The application was also recommended for refusal by the planning officer.

'There was a lot of reaction against this application from the residents of St Mellion and we are very grateful for the planning decision,' he said. 'But whilst we are very pleased at the result we are aware that this might go to appeal and we may have to fight this again.

'We are not against green energy at all but feel the site is totally inappropriate. There are 80 houses which abut this site and the golf course itself.

'Having just spent £20-million on the course to bring it up to international standard the last thing Crown Golf wants is the view from the first tee to be of a solar farm.'

There was criticism that the developers had not looked into the detail of the site.

Chairman of the parish council Ken Henley said councillors had spotted close to '70 errors' in the application. 'Some of the inaccuracies,' he said, 'include that it is near a main sewer, it is not, while it also states that it is near some dwellings. There are in fact more than 70 dwellings nearby — that is quite a substantial housing development.'

Cornwall councillor Andrew Long said the proposal could impact severely on tourism in South East Cornwall.

Speaking at the planning meeting Nicholas Prince from Freetricity said they had reduced the size of the solar farm from 12 megawatt to 8MW to negate the impact on the local environment.

He said it was a great opportunity to embrace green technology and said much of the site would be screened by hedgerows.