When Sarah Pye and her partner Doug Knight bought a small property on Anglesey in Wales, it seemed to be the rural idyll they’d always wanted.
Quiet and picturesque, the smallholding was meant to be a place to raise their children and run a local tourism business. Or at least that was until a solar developer warned it could seize control of their land – casting doubt over their future plans and life savings.
“Out of the blue, we had a series of letters from LightsourceBP, a solar energy company, saying they may need our land for a solar farm,” says Sarah.
The letters, describing plans for the 3,200-acre Maen Hir solar fields, arrived just after she and Doug had finished four years of work – including planting 4,000 trees to create a woodland camper-van site.
“They want to run cables right through our new woodland and campsite and surround our property with solar panels,” says Sarah.
“And it seemed like we had no choice because if we refused, they would use compulsory acquisition powers.”....<<<Read More>>>....
