I refer to your article (May 30) regarding plans for a solar farm at Little Chalfield headed Third Solar Farm plans submitted.

I believe that permission on this 49-acre field would be contrary to recent advice from government Energy Minister Greg Barker, who stated that “The main focus for future growth must be on site generation” meaning rooftops and brownfield sites.

Subsidies which provide landowners with huge benefits have resulted in an upsurge of applications and a recent article in The Times confirmed that “a thousand applications for renewable energy projects may be surplus to requirements. 16gw have already been built and another 19gw have been granted permission”.

The Little Chalfield site is clearly inappropriate. It is grade 3B productive arable land which if developed would serve to deprive numerous locals and visitors to the area of a valuable visual amenity.

Planning law permits protection of countryside of this type by discouraging urbanisation and giving a clear responsibility to protect areas of “beautiful countryside and the impact on views and landscape”. English Home magazine recently described Little Chalfield as an area “tucked away amongst a peaceful stretch of English countryside”, and “idyllic, and evoking English scenes reminiscent of the timeless landscapes of Eric Ravilious”.

From the site you can see the Cotswold ridge which forms the beginning of a classified area of outstanding natural beauty and Salisbury plain, and it would be visible from many footpaths and bridleways including some that are a few metres from one of the area’s major attractions at Great Chalfield Manor. Understandably the area attracts many ramblers, horse riders and cyclists.

The planning application seems to play down this impact and features a few photographs from surrounding areas but misses some others of potentially greater impact.

There would also be a massive cumulative effect and the village of Broughton Gifford would find itself literally surrounded by solar farms, as two others have recently been granted permission.

Access plans have been presented which seem to ignore traffic heading to and from Stonar School, the narrow often single track roads that surround the site and poor visibility at some junctions. Broughton Gifford is suggested as a main access route.

Benefits to the local economy are also overplayed as most workers on other sites have come from outside UK, and the development could well have a detrimental effect as a result of lost tourism.

Fortunately the subsidies that are encouraging landowners and provide them with almost five times the return on arable are being scrapped in March 2015, but that will not be in time to halt the Chalfield application. There also remains a risk of local parish councils being influenced in their decision-making by the financial benefits they can receive in return for supporting such schemes.

We only hope that in the case of Little Chalfield common sense will prevail and this beautiful peace of English countryside will be maintained intact.

Please, please help us. If you would like to help preserve Wiltshire’s most beautiful countryside please write before July 4 to: Cllr Terry Chivers at: terry.chivers@wiltshire.gov.uk, Alison Hall at: developmentmanagement@wiltshire.gov.uk or go on line to find out more at: www.notochalfieldsolar.co.uk.

Philip Addis, Little Chalfield, Melksham.