Telegraph cartoonist Matt donates artwork to solar farm campaign

Earlier this week, the Local Democracy Reporting Service revealed that Lime Down Solar Park Limited had submitted its planning application to the Planning Inspectorate.

The company, a division of Island Green Power, which is itself a subsidiary of former Thames Water owner Macquarie Asset Management, wants to build a 500 megawatt solar farm to the north of the M4 near Malmesbury.

The company says it would produce enough renewable energy to power 115,000 homes. Campaigners against the scheme say an area four miles wide by two miles deep would be covered in solar panels.

Due to the scale of the project it is deemed a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project - and that means the local planning authority, Wiltshire Council, will not be asked to determine the proposal.

Instead, scrutiny will rest with the government's Planning Inspectorate. The Bristol-based regional office will first decide if it can accept the application for examination. This decision is expected by October 17.

If the application is accepted, there will be an examination - and at this stage campaigners will need to bring in experts in planning and the law to argue their case.

To help build their war chest, an art exhibition and auction will take place over the weekend of Saturday and Sunday, October 4 and 5. Hosted at Fosse Farm, Brokenborough the exhibition will run between 11am and 3pm.

Over 100 works including watercolours, prints, bronzes and ceramics will be for sale with prices ranging from £30 to £5,000.

Artists contributing to the exhibition include Lucy Kent, Alison Murray Wells, Caroline Bromley-Gardner and George Irvine.

The Telegraph's cartoonist, Matt, has donated original two cartoons that will have additional limited print runs of 25, and Maria Pitt’s Cotswold Ram, a life-sized sculpture of a ram's head, is valued at £4,000.

A preview of the exhibition will be held on Friday, October 30 from 6.30pm with an auction at 8pm selling the two original Matt cartoons and the Cotswold Ram.

Exhibition organiser Anna-Kate Fuller said: "We are overwhelmed by the enormous support that our campaign has received over the past eighteen months, since news of Lime Down Solar hit our doorsteps.

"This exhibition has grown into something much bigger and more exciting than we ever anticipated, bringing together so many from our community.

"We are hugely grateful to all the artists who are donating at least 30 per cent, many giving 100 per cent, to Stop Lime Down.”

The planning process is expected to take more than a year. Planning permission will ultimately be granted or refused by Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband.