Save Rampisham Down

10 February 2015

Conservation expert and blogger Miles King explains why saving Rampisham Down in Dorset is vital for all wildlife.

Rampisham Down is a large area of wildlife-rich grassland on a high ridge of land in the West of Dorset. Historically it had been open grazing land, until 1939 when a large BBC radio transmitting station was built there. The station closed in 2011 and the site was sold to a Solar Farm developer, British Solar Renewables (BSR).

The area’s value for wildlife was well-known and the BBC managers were proud to manage the grassland at Rampisham to benefit its wildlife. Dorset Environmental Records Centre had identified it as a County Wildlife Site in 1996 and they regarded it as the largest area of Lowland Acid Grassland (a Section 41 Habitat of Principal Importance) in Dorset.

Immediately following purchase BSR started ground-works for the construction of a solar farm, including over 100,000 solar panels, before planning permission had been applied for. West Dorset District Council stopped the work and directed BSR to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment.

During 2013 BSR’s ecologists surveyed the site and their evidence showed that the grassland was nationally important for wildlife. Natural England (NE) duly notified the site as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in early 2014.

The site was notified as one of the largest surviving areas of Common Bent – Sheep’s Fescue – Heath Bedstraw grasslands in England. NE estimate there is less than 5000 hectares of this type of grassland in lowland England, and Rampisham alone makes up 1.5% of the surviving resource.

Rampisham also supports 10 species of plant on the England Red Data List, and is at least regionally important for Waxcap fungi. It also supports vanishingly rare chalk heath habitat. Butterflies including Small Heath, Grayling and Dark Green Fritillary have been recorded there but no moth survey has been done. The Council approved the planning application in January 2015, against the Planning Officer’s recommendation and with objections from Natural England, who concluded that erecting over 100,000 solar panels would permanently damage the special interest of the SSSI.

BSR claim that they can alleviate the impact of the panels on the grassland by incorporating translucent “windows” into the panels. After five months of monitoring, their ecologists concluded that the grassland under the panels was cooler, damper and darker than adjacent un-shaded areas. Yet BSR continue to claim that the grassland under the panels will be unaffected by the shading (and other impacts). BSR have commenced a monitoring project at Rampisham Down, using a test array of panels, which they hope will show that there will be no impact on the SSSI.

Dorset Wildlife Trust, RSPB, CPRE and other organisations, alongside over 10,500 individuals have written to the Secretary for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, asking him to call-in the planning permission and he has already issued a holding direction to West Dorset. If the Secretary of State does call it in, it is likely to go to a Public Inquiry.

If this permission is approved, it will, along with the Lodge Hill decision, undermine the protection afforded our best nature sites from development. It will be the largest loss of a protected nature site in Britain since Cardiff Bay in 1994.

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