National CPRE Board Visits Oxfordshire
29th September 2025
We were delighted to welcome the National CPRE Board to Oxfordshire in September for their awayday, giving us a valuable opportunity to highlight both the challenges and the successes we are seeing across the county.
The day began with lunch at the inspirational FarmEd, where co-founder Ian Wilkinson shared the story behind the project and underlined the vital role of regenerative farming in tackling the climate and nature crises.
With climate change now an urgent priority, we then turned to one of the most difficult questions facing us all: how to secure the transition to clean energy while safeguarding our countryside. To illustrate the scale of this challenge, we visited the proposed site for the Botley West solar development. If approved, it would cover 880 hectares of rolling Oxfordshire landscape – three quarters of it in the Green Belt and much of it productive farmland. While many on the Board were aware of the scheme in principle, standing on site brought home the sheer size of what is being proposed. Tenant farmer, James Price, spoke movingly of the potential loss to his business and the disruption already being felt, with little sign of meaningful mitigation or compensation.
In contrast, our next stop demonstrated how renewables can be delivered in a way that works for both people and place. At Southill Solar, near Charlbury, the project has engaged the community from the outset and now generates enough green electricity to power around 1,100 homes – that’s most of Charlbury, Finstock and Fawler – while providing £30,000 each year to support local, low-carbon initiatives. The site also integrates a well-managed biodiversity programme, benefitting wildlife and offering hands-on opportunities for local people, from wildflower planting to hedge creation.
The day made it clear that Oxfordshire faces stark choices when it comes to the transition to clean energy: on the one hand, large-scale developments that threaten our landscapes, farmland and communities; on the other, well-planned, community-focused projects that deliver renewable energy while enhancing the countryside and people’s lives.