A PLAN for nearly 24,000 solar panels to be installed near Westbury-on-Severn could get the go-ahead next week.

Planning officials at the Forest of Dean District Council are recommending the scheme at Elton is given the go-ahead.

Forest councillors will decide on the recommendation at a meeting of the authority’s planning committee on Tuesday (October 13).

The scheme for 23,900 individual panels, which has been submitted by Northumberland-based Wessex Solar Energy, has prompted objections.

The solar farm would have a maximum capacity of up to five megawatts and at peak output could generate the equivalent of providing electricity for 1,186 households.

Objectors say the scheme at Cowles Farm, Elton would introduce an ‘industrial’ look to a rural area.

Planning officers say the proposal is ‘acceptable in principle’ and while some visual intrusion into the landscape is inevitable, it would not cause significant harm.

They also recommend a number of conditions to reduce the impact of the development.

Measures to reduce the impact are part of the scheme to “ensure the proposal is environmentally and socially acceptable”, say the applicants.

It is estimated the solar array would off-set between 1,872 and 4,433 tonnes of carbon dioxide, up to 51 tonnes of sulphur dioxide and up to 15 tonnes of nitrogen oxides.

The applicants say glint caused by the panels has been calculated at less than six minutes a day and only during the early morning and early evening for part of the year.

Glare is considered to be so weak as to have no significant effect.

Construction is expected to take place over four months between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 1pm on Saturdays.

It is expected that between two and six delivery vehicles a day would be required during the construction period.

Westbury Parish Council raised concerns about the impact on the landscape while the parish councils in Littledean and Newnham both objected.

The council has also 115 objections from individuals and from the Friends of Chestnut Woods groups.

There were also two petitions, one with 92 signatures and one with 52, objecting to solar arrays.