PEOPLE power has seen plans for a large-scale solar farm in Hawkwell put on hold.

Lightsource Renewable Energy held a public consultation with villagers last month and, as a result, has put the project – which would see 13,600 put on a 16.3-acre site – on hold.

The plan would have seen a road built from Gustedhall Lane to the proposed site, west of Mount Bovers Lane and surrounded by Hockley Woods.

Around 150 people attended the public meeting with nearly 100 of them opposing the scheme.

Carol Dutton, 68, of Thorpe Road, Hawkwell, objected to the scheme and was delighted to hear of Lightsource’s decision.

She said: “This is good news as the main point lots of people were making is that we have already had a terrific amount of disruption in this part of Hawkwell with the 175 homes at Clements Gate.

“It is quite awful living near a building site, especially with our little roads.

“We already have a lot of heavy goods vehicles up and down our roads all the time, the roads are a mess and people just want to get back to normal, our lives have been very disrupted for years now.”

Rochford District Residents councillors for Hawkwell West, John and Christine Mason, had initially alerted the public to the plan before residents took it upon themselves to spread the word and encourage fellow villagers to attend the meeting.

Mrs Mason canvassed opinion as people left the meeting with only 18 of the 150 attendees in favour of the plan, which would have provided power for around 1,000 homes.

Mr Mason said it was good to see a company listening to the views of the public.

He said: “This is a victory for all those who attended the meeting.

“It is nice to see a company pay attention to the views expressed to them, to take them on board and to act accordingly.

“If a formal application was made then Lightsource could see that objections would have been made and it would have been left to the councillors to decide on the scheme, and you can never tell how they are going to vote.”

A spokesman for Lightsource told the Echo: “We can confirm that we have recently decided to place the Hockley Woods project on hold, so unfortunately we will not be progressing with a formal planning application at this time.

"We’d like to thank local residents for their feedback and if the situation changes, or we embark on a new solar farm project in the area in the future, we will reopen dialogue with the local community.”