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Plans for a solar farm on part of a former landfill site near Carmarthen have been approved. Twenty two rows of solar panels will be installed on land at Nantycaws waste management site, which is run by a council arm’s-length body called Cwm Environmental Ltd.
The electricity they generate will help power the facility, with gas captured from the old landfill and used on site due to run out shortly. Carmarthenshire Council’s planning committee was told that the nearest properties to the proposed solar farm were 450m away, that there was a line of trees to the east of the site, and that a new hedgerow would be planted along the western side.
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Planning officer Helen Rice said Nantycaws waste management site was in quite an elevated position but that views into it were “fairly limited”. She said: “We do not consider that it (the proposed solar farm) would have such a detrimental impact on the landscape to warrant a refusal.” She said the former landfill site had been capped with a plastic membrane and covered with at least one metre of soil, and that the grassland within the solar farm development would be managed in a way to encourage biodiversity.
Councillors were told that 110 two-way vehicle movements were anticipated for the construction of the two megawatt solar farm over a period of three to six months, and that vehicles would have to turn left into and out of the site from the A48 rather than attempting a right turn across the busy dual carriageway. The Welsh Government’s South Wales Trunk Road Agency, which is responsible for the A48, did not object to Cwm Environmental’s application but directed the council to impose a planning condition requiring an updated construction management plan to be submitted.
A view from the location at Nantycaws where the solar farm is to be installed
The council’s planning department recommended the application for approval, and the only committee member to vote against the recommendation was Cllr Gareth Thomas. He said the solar farm was “a good idea” but that he was concerned that the A48 was “a problem” given the way he said the waste management site was growing.
Cllr Thomas said he felt pressure should be put on the South Wales Trunk Road Agency. “This is a personal protest more than anything,” he said. “The road is going to become more and more dangerous.” Cllr Elwyn Williams said it was his understanding that there were plans for a new intersection where the A48 met the Nantycaws access road.