Your correspondent demonstrates a very shortsighted view of this form of renewable energy (Promote good practice, September 18).

That renewable energy is required is not in doubt.

He perceives a potential ‘bounty’ of £1 million over 25 years to the parish of Seend but fails to account for the reduction in income to the community as a whole which will more than offset this ‘bounty’.

Once the landscape has become industrialised the visitors to the canal and countryside will go and spend their money elsewhere.

Pubs, cafés, shops and guest houses which, over recent years, have built up good businesses and employed local people will be short of customers, as will those farms and suppliers providing them with local produce. The Department for Communities and Local Government document ‘Planning practice guidance for renewable and low carbon energy’ (July 2013) states: “Solar farms can have a negative impact on the rural environment, particularly in undulating landscapes.” This describes exactly the type of scenic rolling countryside in the triangle between Melksham, Devizes and Trowbridge where more than 500 acres of solar farms are now being considered.

A guidance letter from the Minister later in 2013 clarified this particular point about the suitability of rolling countryside for solar farms but, for some reason yet to be explained, Wiltshire Council does not believe that this national guidance applies to Wiltshire.

Perhaps, like your correspondent, they too are dazzled by the prospect of extra income from the business rate and are blind to the wider, long- term effect of such developments.

Paul Jackson, Seend.