The casting vote of a committee chairman condemned Long Sutton to be surrounded on three sides by a massive solar farm for the next 40 years.

A planning application by Fleet Solar Ltd for the 259-acre solar farm - with 136 acres covered in solar panels - was approved by five votes to four when Hart District Council’s development management committee met at the Harlington Centre in Fleet on March 19.

Richard Lea, a Long Sutton resident, said: “Despite a large attendance of vocal villagers and our strong objections, the initial planning vote was 4-4. The committee chair Cllr Graham Cockarill then followed his planning officer’s advice and cast his deciding vote to make it 5-4 in favour.

“Long Sutton has now been sacrificed to Hart District Council’s ‘climate change emergency’ stance and having no current solar energy target, which could lead them to refuse unsuitable solar schemes on green fields. They now appear open to all solar applications!”

The objections were led by Cllr Chris Dorn, who represents Odiham on Hart District Council, supported by Upton Grey, South Warnborough and Greywell parish councils, around 70 villagers who attended the meeting and 186 written objections. Only two written comments backed the proposal.

Mr Lea added: “Our main objections to the scheme were sheer size, leading to an industrialised landscape with CCTV cameras at 50-metre intervals, ruining the visual aspects north and south of the village, enclosing popular footpaths within chainlink fencing, and being hugely detrimental to local ecology and barn owl nesting habitats.”

The 47.9 megawatt capacity solar farm will be built on agricultural land at White Hill - east and west of Long Lane, south of Hayley Lane and south of Ford Lane.

It will power 18,600 homes and prevent 29,000 tons of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere each year by producing electricity without burning fossil fuels.