Meeting of 17 Sep 26 Link to heading

Attendance Link to heading

  • Chris Crookall-Fallon
  • Sandy Bagnall
  • Skye Frewin
  • Christine Crookall-Fallon
  • Garry Ford
  • Anne Kipling
  • Tim Stephenson

Apologies from: Matt, Kate, Joanne, and Dave

Lines including (A) denote actions for the named person.

Report on meeting with Methuen estate representatives Link to heading

  • Angus Methuen-Campbell is sole owner of farm where site SM is.

  • Chris Waltho is agent acting for both Corsham estate and Farm.

  • Potentially there may be other plans for site SA (near the A350).

  • Generally positive about the idea.

  • The site is significantly larger than we need and appears well screened, which we may hope are positives on the planning front.

  • Reminder: Corsham substation has some (1.5-2MW?) capacity.

    • But: MOD Corsham may also planning some solar connections.

  • How to connect to substation is one of the key risks identified in the preliminary work.

  • (A) Skye undertook to find out where it is (Leafield Industrial Estate?)

  • Angus and Chris gave verbal agreement, but won’t be able to get us a signed letter til mid-end Oct.

  • Q: is it worth approaching other landlords, given the timeline?

  • A: Could do, but the process has pushed us to these 3.

GB Energy announcement Link to heading

  • Applications open today, for 8 weeks (so that means 11 Nov closing date?)

  • This fund is a total of £20m but hopefully this is the first of many and regular rounds.

  • It seems likely this round will be very over-subscribed as itt has been trailed for some time.

  • Mentions favouring ‘financially viable’ projects, which may imply projects further along with financial modelling than we are.

  • However, we have had the FEL process and not least the Empowered preliminary feasibility study.

  • BWCE has a number of other projects to submit (perhaps as many as a dozen).

  • Eligibility: Must be a legally constituted and Corsham Climate Action is not (BWCE obviously is).

  • Extract about assessment criteria:

    Where two or more applications receive the same overall weighted assessment score and there is insufficient funding to support all of them, Great British Energy will apply the following tie-break sequence:

    • The application with the higher score for Project Viability and Deliverability
    • If applications remain tied, the application with the higher score for Community Ownership and Benefit.
    • If applications remain tied at this stage, the application requesting the lower amount of funding will be funded.

BWCE: Westmill Wind and Solar Farm Link to heading

Next steps Link to heading

  • Hold a Q&A session including Alison (BWCE) in the next couple of weeks.
    • (A) Skye will put out a poll on days w/c 5th Oct or perhaps the week after.
    • It would be good if Alison could sketch out what an imaginary development might look like
    • Memorandum of understanding (MoU) should be available for discussion and hopefully then to be signed.
  • (A) BWCE to evaluate the guidance document and strategy for completing.
    • What can this group contribute to give it a unique flavour?
  • (A) Skye will come back to us with a view, hopefully next week with a timeline if not the final plan.
  • As the GB Energy process is short it is likely that we may need to meet more frequently, no decision taken at this point.