It is disappointing that one of the first acts of the newly-arrived Labour Planning Minister has been to approve the large solar farm proposed for Honiley. I believe this is a mistake. Solar panels are an important part of our renewable power generating capacity, but rooftops and canopies over car parks should be preferred as sites for them rather than agricultural land, especially in the Green Belt. If the desirability of renewable energy is reason enough to develop the Green Belt, then it is under threat everywhere and the defence it provides to encroachment on the open countryside and to the merging of urban settlements is undermined.
