A FARMER has said he doesn’t understand the criticism of his plan to build a £5m solar farm on his property between Bicester and Banbury.

Second-generation farmer Charles Landless said it’s particularly surprising given that independent farmers are under constant financial pressure and the world needs more clean energy.

Earlier this month the plan for 11 hectares of farmland – the equivalent of about 17 football pitches – was approved at Hill Farm, between Duns Tew and Deddington.

The 20,000-panel solar farm, which could power over 1,500 homes a year, was given permission against planning officers’ recommendations.

Cherwell District Council officers said the solar farm would have an adverse impact on the countryside, but councillors disagreed, saying panels were “adequately shielded” from view.

Mr Landless, 58, said: “There’s a lot of negativity from local people about what it looks like. I am surprised because there is a lot of publicity about meeting our renewable energy targets.”

The Government wants the UK to generate 15 per cent of its energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020.

Mr Landless’s plan is one of three solar farm applications so far this year in Oxfordshire.

He approached solar farm developer Earthworm Energy in 2014 because he wanted to diversify his income streams and protect the farm’s financial viability for his two daughters, aged 24 and 26.

He said: “I think there’s a lack of understanding about farming. By enabling farms to do that, and earn quite a lot more money, it helps to keep the rest of the farm where profitability is not so good.”

He said the solar farm would improve the profitability of that particular acreage by at least 10 times, compared to arable farming.

Mr Landless, who grows crops and runs beef cattle and beef breeding cows, also intends to graze sheep amid the solar panels.

The solar farm will produce five megawatts (MW) of electricity a year – enough to power 1,515 homes – which will go into the national grid.

But Michael Tyce, of the Campaign to Protect Rural England’s Oxfordshire branch, said: “We oppose the use of land for solar farms because we think the land is best used for agriculture.”