Wootton Solar Power Station Application Withdrawn At Last Minute

A major planning application for a renewable energy park south of a large Isle of Wight village was withdrawn at the last minute from the agenda of a County Hall meeting yesterday (Tuesday).

The planning committee was due to review Sunny Oaks Renewable Energy Park Ltd’s revised proposal for a solar power station, northwest of Whiterails Road and southwest of Wootton Bridge.

At the start of the roundtable however, council planning boss Ollie Boulter informed members the application had been removed from the agenda after the local authority received a “significant amount of further information” from a third-party objector on Monday afternoon.

He told the chamber:

“The application that was due to be in front of you, reference 22/01585/FUL, has been withdrawn from the agenda at the request of the applicant”.

Committee members originally considered the application in September 2023 due to it being of ‘genuine Island-wide significance’ and it raising ‘marginal and difficult policy issues’, according to an officer report.

A subsequent legal challenge against the previously approved plans led to the quashing of planning permission on the grounds that councillors were not given information relating to fire risk.

Prior to its withdrawal from yesterday’s agenda, planners said the application had to be reconsidered with the fire risk information ‘in front of the committee’.