Sam Greenway

Adam and Fiona Hunter have applied to develop green belt land at Chadwick Barns on Sparrow Cock Lane in Chadwick End as a solar farm. The proposal includes 45 ground-mounted photovoltaic panels arranged in three rows, along with battery storage, with a maximum height of 2.2 metres. The applicants say the temporary, reversible installation would generate renewable electricity for domestic use, reduce carbon emissions and have only limited, localized impact on green-belt openness. Solihull Council is consulting on the application until August 20, following its recent rejection of a separate solar farm proposal near Birmingham Airport.

Solihull Council’s planning committee rejected TotalEnergies’ proposal for a 63-hectare solar farm and battery-storage facility at Woodhouse Farm near Birmingham Airport. Although council planning officers recommended approval and the airport supported the project as a potential source of clean energy for its net-zero goals, residents and councillors objected to green-belt development, landscape impacts, the credibility of restoring the land to agriculture, and construction traffic. The proposal was rejected by seven votes to two, with the formal refusal grounds to be finalised by council officials.

An updated Arup assessment commissioned for Solihull’s emerging local plan identifies 72 parcels as potential grey belt land, including sites near Coventry and within the Meriden Gap. Solihull Council stresses that the assessment is evidence rather than policy and does not mean the sites will automatically be developed. Three of the four areas deemed fundamentally important to preserving the separation between Coventry and Solihull lie in the Meriden Gap. Decisions on releasing land from the green belt will be made through the local-plan process, followed by public consultation and scrutiny by a government-appointed inspector.