FOR the second time, plans for a huge solar farm in Hampshire have been rejected.

Today this paper reports on how proposals for a 47,000-panel solar farm on the Broadlands Estate at Romsey which were initially given the green light by planning councillors have now been rejected by Test Valley Council.

The move has echoes of a similar smaller project planned for Hordle in the New Forest which was also rejected.

In both cases the argument in favour of green renewable energy had been strongly made, but in the end greater consideration was given to the visual impact such a plan would have on the countryside.

Are we then seeing a backlash against solar panel farms that had been witnessed in the debate over wind farms?

That may well be the case. The public, and hence their elected representatives, seem unhappy with large swathes of green fields being covered with, some would say, ugly solar panels.

The fact the Government is soon to remove its subsidy for such projects will also make it increasingly unlikely that our green and pleasant land will become strewn with fields of metal and plastic panels.

The reaction to the huge Navitus Bay project off the coast of Hampshire and Dorset which plans to site wind turbines within sight of the seashore had not been positive either.

If we do not want wind turbines nor solar panels and we are wary of so-called fracking, how do we keep the lights on?