GridSource Ltd’s plans for battery storage at New Milton rejected by NFDC
A PROPOSAL to build a “mini” battery electrical storage unit in an undeveloped part of the New Forest has been rejected.
GridSource Ltd was seeking NFDC’s permission to install and operate the battery and other ancillary buildings on land west of the A337 Christchurch Road at Downton.
The authority’s landscape team objected to the development alongside others who said it would be “totally out of place” and an “inappropriate development” in the Green Belt.
Recommending councillors refuse the application, NFDC officers wrote: “The proposed…infrastructure represents an inappropriate form of development within the Green Belt that would have an adverse impact on the openness of the Green Belt.
“The proposed development would result in the introduction of new built infrastructure of a semi-industrial appearance into an attractive, open rural landscape. The development would thereby be visually incongruous in this context and harmful to the rural character and appearance of the area.”