WE READ with interest the thinly disguised press release from Big60Million which appeared in the Standard on July 23 under the headline ‘Residents are put first in plan for solar farm’. The article stated that the company will ‘put local people first, ensuring that developments benefit them.’ Our first reaction was ‘How?’.

The proposed solar installation (not a farm – it’s not growing anything) at Preston is four times larger than the Willersey installation. 94 acres. 50 football pitches. The subsidy, paid to the developer from levies on our energy bills, will not benefit anyone in the UK – Big60Million is part of Belectric, a German company.

The article also states that the Willersey site generated electricity which is ‘fed into the local grid’. It may be fed into the national grid locally, but there is no such thing as a ‘local’ grid. The electricity generated at the proposed Preston site is as likely to be used in Preston, Lancashire, as it is in the Cirencester area.

Construction will cause great disruption, noise and mess. The lane leading to the site is not wide enough to take large lorries, and they will apparently be banned from driving through the village.

So, are they planning to tear up the lane and replace it with a wider road, destroying yet more of the rural surroundings of Cirencester?

It seems that we are powerless to resist this development. Opposition to the Willersey installation was ignored, as we expect ours to be.

Please don’t rub our noses in it by helping Belectric to pretend their motives are anything other than financial gain.

CATHY & JOHN LYNN

Preston