The Secretary of State Ed Miliband has announced that a decision on Botley West Solar Farm will be delayed until September, rather than May as initially planned.
Martin McCluskey, the Minister for Energy Consumers, explained that the delay would "enable" the government to "seek further information" from developers Photovolt Development Partners (PVDP) [BBC News].
It is being suggested, but confirmed, that the delay is due to Planning Inspectorate being unsatisfied with the proposal and likely to refuse permission. A decision will now be made by 10 September 2026.
This delay has been partly welcomed by Stop Botley West, a local campaign group. In an email sent out recently, the group said:
“It is galling that PVDP are being given a second (actually 4th or 5th!) chance to get it right. Our only comfort is that this causes further delay for them and they may still not be able to answer the questions satisfactorily. Nevertheless, their application, as it stood at the end of the examination period, should have been rejected outright.”
The group has shared the details of the next steps for this application:
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Department for Energy and Net Zero (DESNZ) will send out its request for further information to PVDP shortly after Easter.
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DESNEZ’s request will be published on the PINs Project Information Page here.
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PVDP’s response will be published in the same place in due course.
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This could be followed by more requests from DESNZ addressed to specific bodies or persons who then will be given a time limit to respond.
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Interested parties will be able to respond to and comment on DESNEZ’s questions and/or PVDP’s answers. (The means of doing so has not yet been confirmed.)
We will keep residents updated when we have further information on this project.