Help stop the destruction of the rural environment in Acton Beauchamp, Herefordshire.

We want to stop valuable agricultural land in Acton Beauchamp, a particularly beautiful corner of Herefordshire, from being rendered unusable for years to come - if not forever.

Please donate to this cause and help us to fund the fight against this potential blight on the rural landscape of Herefordshire.

A Proposal on a Huge Scale

One of the key aims of SABRE is to prevent good quality agricultural land in and around Acton Beauchamp, a particularly beautiful corner of Herefordshire, from being rendered unproductive for years to come. The industrialisation resulting from the construction of a dense network of large solar panels will damage the local landscape and cause the loss of productive farmland. That is why the negatives of solar power are so important to understand.

SABRE - Save Acton Beauchamp's Rural Environment - is a working group established by local residents with concerns that a proposed industrial-sized solar development will threaten the beautiful and historic landscape as well as the wildlife, habitats, rural amenity and viable farmland in and around Acton Beauchamp, Sevington and Evesbatch. The development, were it to go ahead, would cover an area of land three times the size of Bishops Frome and blight the whole area for decades to come.

Solar Development Only in Appropriate Locations

With climate records being broken on an almost daily basis, no one can sensibly deny that alternative methods of generating energy need to be found and pursued if we are to survive the current climate crisis. Whilst solar generated power is one of the options available to us, that does not mean that we should simply accept that every location is suitable for solar panels.

It is, in particular, vital that the pursuit of solar power should not be at the expense of our ability to produce our own food. Importing food from abroad can not only cost us more as a country but also itself contributes to global warming through the use of fuel in lorries, ships and aircraft.

Solar panel developments should not be built on productive farmland simply because it is more profitable for the developers to do so.

Many environmental commentators are starting to express concerns about the potential industrialisation of rural areas and have stressed the need for local sustainable food production to be retained and for renewable energy sites to be only in appropriate locations.

You may not be entirely against solar panels. However, they do need to be in right place such as on brownfield sites, existing industrial landscapes or on rooftops. Don't just take our word for it.

The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) is currently seeking national support for the construction of more rooftop solar panels (https://takeaction.cpre.org.uk/page/127929/-/1). The only reason for putting them on otherwise viable and productive farmland is to increase the profits of the developers at the expense of the rural community in which they are constructed.

It is important for local voices to be heard as solar factories, or farms as the supporters like to call them, are a blight and will have an impact on the countryside for many years to come. Not only will local land itself be covered in up to 100,000 solar panels, maybe more, the panels themselves will need to be delivered on the backs of lorries continually driving up and down the narrrow rural lanes. We are concerned as to the damage this will inevitably cause to our local infrastructure and the danger that it will present to those who walk, cycle or ride on these lanes, not to mention the general loss of amenity to ALL residents during the construction phase.

Join and Support SABRE

Anyone is welcome to join us at one of our working group meetings. These are held every few weeks, where we discuss any actions that have occurred and agree action plans as to how we will respond to this potential development. Alternatively, you can simply supports what SABRE is doing and wants to be kept informed and who may want to object as and when a planning proposal is submitted.

Please either donate what you can to help us with our fight. We would also welcome your contact details so we can keep you in touch with developments. If you are happy to provide these can you send an email to: admin@sabre.website. Please let us know your name, address and e-mail address and if appropriate ,how,if at all,you would like to be involved. If you don’t have access to email, please telephone 01886 878 533 and leave a message and we will get back to you.