PLANS to build a large-scale solar farm in a field in Hawkwell have angered families living nearby.

Lightsource Renewable Energy, has applied to Rochford District Council to build the power plant on a 16.3 acre site off Gusted Hall Lane.

However, neighbours living near the meadow, which is surrounded by Hockley Woods, are objecting to plans for the green belt site.

Residents are also upset developers plan to build a road across the fields from Gusted Hall Lane to Mount Bovers to allow lorries to get to the site.

About 150 people turned up at a public consultation meeting in Hawkwell to air their views and find out more about the proposals.

A poll by Rochford District councillor Christine Mason showed an overwhelming majority of those present opposed the plan.

Carol Dutton, 68, of Thorpe Road, Hawkwell, said: “I’m against this is because Hawkwell is a small community and we have had lots of building and disruption already in the past two and a half years.

“We suffer from lots of heavy vehicles coming down our little roads and now they are doing it all again and ruining the small bits of land we have left.

Hawkwell has suffered enough.”

Larry Norris, 61, of Rectory Road, Hawkwell, was also at the meeting and said he did not want any more of the village’s countryside to be taken away.

He said: “The sun shines everywhere.

There are many other places where this could be done without taking out our English countryside. We don’t need it here.”

Chris Teeder, chairman of the Essex Badger Protection Group, is also opposing the solar farm, fearing it would affect badgers living in the area.

He said: “It’s an area where there are a lot of badgers and it would be foraging the ground where the badgers live.”

Lightsource says its plant would generate enough energy to power about 1,000 homes.

A spokesman said: “The solar farm’soperation would not disturb animals, walkers or cyclists in the area. Specific improvements will be decided following the results of ecological surveys and feedback from the community.”

The solar farm would be built a 16.3-acre area, using about 13,600 panels, but applicant Lightsource say only about a quarter of the green belt site would be covered.

The developers say existing vegetation would remain and be managed as part of the project, with a biodiversity managementplan turning the site into a haven for wildlife .

Walkers, cyclists and horse riders would be unlikely to see much of the site from nearby woodland footpaths, as it is hidden by trees in the wood .

A wide buffer zone with wild flowers and wildlife habitat would be created between the solar farm and the edge of the woodland.

The solar panels do not require direct sunlight to generate electricity, only daylight. They still work on cloudy days – in fact they are designed to work more efficiently in cooler temperatures.

The site would be enclosed by a 2m-tall wood and wire fence, put up following the line of the fields. There would be no floodlighting.

Lightsource says no noise would be audible outside the site.