A solar farm the size of roughly 55 football fields which could power over 9,000 houses has been green-lit near Wimbish.

Uttlesford District Council’s planning committee voted to approve an application by Long Meadow Solar Farm, a subsidiary of Low Carbon Ltd, for the power station in Cole End Lane at a meeting yesterday.

Councillors deliberated over a lack of detail regarding how the site would be decommissioned after its 40-year lifespan, but eventually came down on the side of giving permission for the plans.

Several residents spoke at the meeting to express fears 54.9 Hectares of agricultural land could be “wrecked” by the proposed “industrial facility”.

Speaking on behalf of the applicant, head of project development at Low Carbon James Hartley-Bond said Uttlesford did not have many brownfield sites to be used as alternatives.

He also said all the grain currently produced by the site is used for animal feed, and not for human consumption, dismissing concerns building a solar farm there would disrupt the national food chain.

He said: “You have before you today a well-received project with officer and consultee support, that will make a huge difference to the climate and energy security crisis which we find ourselves in.”

A new woodland of 12,000 trees over 7.5 Ha will be planted in order to provide a net gain in biodiversity, according to a council report.

The committee has also imposed a series of conditions on the applicant, including ensuring hedges are planted along the site’s fencing to reduce their visual impact.

Among the guest speakers at the meeting was Richard Haynes, a trustee at The Countryside Charity, who described the site as a “truly outstanding rural landscape”.

He said: “The thought that my walk could in future be wrecked by security fencing, my every move watched by CCTV cameras and looking at nothing but an industrial facility, frankly that’s appalling.”

The proposals are a full application for the maximum extent of development, meaning the solar farm could end up being smaller than what has been approved, under a planning principle called the Rochdale Envelope.

This is to account for scarcity in materials and uncertainties in the energy industry.

According to the report, the solar farm will be decommissioned after 40 years and returned to agricultural use, with the applicant contributing £20,000 to this purpose as recommended by an external consultant.

Some committee members said they felt there was not enough detail about how this could be achieved and how much this would cost.

Councillor Geoff Bagnall (Residents for Uttlesford, Takeley) said: “If we decide one way or the other here I think we are doing it in the dark.

“I don’t think we have sufficient information to make a proper judgement on whether this is efficient use of land and even if it’s in the right place.”