PLANS to build a solar park which could power around 9,000 homes in Blaenau Gwent have been approved, despite concerns over its impact on the only known cholera cemetery in Wales and the surrounding landscape.

A planning inspector recommended the proposal to develop on a 143-acre site at Wauntysswg Farm near Tredegar should be refused over its impact on the landscape and the Tredegar Ironworks Cholera Cemetery.

Blaenau Gwent council, Tredegar Town Council and Cadw – the Welsh Government’s historic environment service – also raised concerns over the plans, which were decided by a Welsh minister due to being a Development of National Significance.

The cholera cemetery is located around 400 metres north of the site and is described by Cadw as “a rare physical reminder of such dreadful events which can otherwise seem isolated from the wider story of industrial and social progress.”

A report by planning inspector Melissa Hall said the impact on the cemetery would be “negative” – and also raised concern over the visual effect of the solar park.

“Travelling towards the site, a viewer’s eye would be drawn to this alien form which would represent a distinctive visual interruption and occupy a large proportion of the overall vista,” the report says.

MORE NEWS:

Ms Hall concluded the benefits of the proposal – helping to meet carbon and renewable targets – would not outweigh harm caused to the landscape.

Although the park would only be in place for 30 years, Ms Hall said: “This time period represents a generation, during the lifetime of which, the harm to the character and appearance of the area and to the setting of a heritage asset would subsist.”

But the Welsh Government’s minister for housing and local government, Julie James, said any impact would be “temporary and fully reversible.”

While agreeing with the majority of the inspector’s report, Ms James said she disagreed with the assessment of landscape and visual impact, and the setting of heritage assets.

Ms James concluded the “significant benefits” of the proposal, by generating 30MW of electricity per year from a renewable source, outweighed any impact on the landscape or setting of the ancient monument.

The minister’s decision will be noted by Blaenau Gwent council’s planning committee at a meeting next Thursday, September 5.