MP Robert Courts saw for himself the scale of just one part of Botley West solar farm on the landscape – as he joined campaigners for a walk through countryside near Eynsham last week.

The Witney MP and Conservative county councillor for Hanborough and Minster Lovell Liam Walker joined more than 100 walkers as they took to footpaths in areas where the solar farm, which will span three sites north of Woodstock, west of Kidlington and west of Botley, is planned.

Rosemary Lewis of Stop Botley West, a campaign group that has called for the government to halt the proposed solar farm, said: “With all the maps in the world, there’s nothing like actually seeing it on the ground. It’s just so huge.”

She said Mr Courts had spoken ‘in favour’ of the campaign. “We had over 100 people turning up, which shows the strength of feeling in the community. But, also, we have increasing support from around the country,” Ms Lewis added.

She said of the Botley West solar farm plan: “It’s in the wrong place. We are passionately in favour of Net Zero. As we say: zero carbon but not zero countryside. It doesn’t need to be on green fields.

“There are some excellent small-scale solar projects around the countryside; there is a very good one set up in Charlbury by the local community for the benefit of the local community.

“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every village or every community could do that.”

Last November, Mr Courts said he had ‘grave concerns’ about the scale of the proposed development, describing it as posing a ‘disproportionate threat to agricultural land’.

Local parish councils have expressed their concerns about the proposals. 

Responding to criticism, in January Mark Owen-Lloyd of company Photovolt Development Partners, which is behind the development, said it was ‘listening to concerns’ and taking them onboard during the design process.

But he added: “One problem is people are looking at this from above and not from farm gates and over hedges, from the traditional viewpoints.

“It will be in the existing fields and we’re making sure we’re not on high ground.”

PVDP claim the farm could produce 840 mega-watts of energy, enough to power some 330,000 homes.

The project, which would be built on land mainly owned by Blenheim Estates and Merton College, will be decided by the government, via the Planning Inspectorate, and not by local councils.