This account of the impact from a runner's perspective of the proposed solar farm was contributed by Simon Hull
The Wessex Way and Liberty Trail pass right next to the proposed development. I am slightly unclear but there may be a requirement to slightly re-route the path to avoid some of the panels. This route is used by walkers and runners quite regularly, and for a couple of specific events. Chard Road Runners (for which I am chairman) do a run twice yearly from near Chard to Lyme, following the Liberty Trail. Albion Running, which is run by Dave Urwin, a runner who is well known in the west country for his long distance running and a book on running that he has published, organise the Ham Hill to Lyme Ultra, and the route includes the section past Gashay Farm. (FYI in case you don't know - an Ultra is a run that is greater than a marathon - ie greater than 26 miles). I have given Dave Urwin details of the group and asked him to review and see whether he can provide some specific support.
Slightly separately I organise a 'pub run' from The Bottle Inn for Chard Road Runners and neighbouring clubs, and the route I normally take includes the part past Gashay Farm. If the development goes ahead then that is likely to be re-routed.
Both walkers and runners do these routes in part because of the countryside through which they pass. It is clearly not measurable, but running close to or having to make detours for solar farms is going to have an impact on people using the routes, and is going to detract from people's enjoyment, and probably more significantly is not going to encourage them to use the route again or encourage others to do so.
I can also give some specific experience about the impact of the solar farm near the Fairwater Head Hotel. One of the obvious concerns for walkers and runners is safety. The B3165 is a road that is not 'safe' to go along - not because there is anything wrong with the road - it's just a B road with no pavements and vehicles go along quite fast. So what we try and do is to try and just cross the road at points where there are paths or minor roads that are on opposite sides of the road. A path that we used to use regularly was the one that joins a Bridleway at Woodcote. To get to that point we used to use a path on the northside of the 3165 that goes from the Hotel. Since the build of the solar farm the path has been re-routed, and it goes right through the middle of the layout of panels. However we now find that the path is unusable and to be honest a bit intimidating. The fields that the panels are in are used mainly for grazing sheep. For some reason the parts that the path now follow do not seem to drain, and again for reasons that I am not clear about the sheep seem to congregate or traverse on the parts where the path is now designated. Result is that it is for a good part of the year extremely boggy and slippery. It is also not pleasant to have to be adjacent to the panels and more particularly to the points where the cables from the panels route to the sub station. So we no longer use that path, and do not plan any routes to include it.
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