BYNEA: Solar farm ‘would force closure of wellbeing sanctuary for children with additional needs’, councillor warns

Plans for a large solar farm between two villages on the edge of Llanelli would “destroy the rural environment, established walks and the health and wellbeing of hundreds of people”, a Carmarthenshire county councillor has warned.

Bynea Labour councillor Deryk Cundy says the development would force the closure of Brynteg Farm and Wellbeing Sanctuary — a centre used by children and adults with additional learning needs, alongside an animal rescue operation.

The scheme, known as Pencoed Ganol Solar Farm, would cover around 120 acres of countryside off Pendderi Road with roughly 75,000 solar panels, and remain in place for 40 years.

It is being brought forward by Windel Solar 11 Ltd, part of Windel Energy and Recurrent Energy, as a development of national significance — meaning the decision rests with Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW) rather than the county council alone.

A construction compound of about six acres — close to the size of three-and-a-half rugby pitches — would be built just 120 metres from the farm.

That compound would house workers’ cabins, parking for construction vehicles and storage for scaffolding and about 10,000 tonnes of aggregate, during a build expected to last a year or more.

Cundy warned that the sanctuary would have to shut the moment work began, citing dust and noise from the site.

“To lose this irreplaceable centre of calm and tranquillity will place severe stress on respite centres and schools throughout Carmarthenshire,” he said.

He described a landscape of “green rolling countryside of hills and valley” turning to “black glass for 40 years”, and said the undulating land meant the panels could not be screened from view.

The impact, he added, would fall hardest on vulnerable visitors, “including people who are known to have neurodivergent issues”.

For Zara John, who owns the farm, the worry is immediate. She fears the plans on her doorstep put the whole business in doubt.

The sanctuary offers specialist support for children with additional learning needs, many of whom visit regularly to ride and to learn how to care for animals.

“With all the chaos in the background the children won’t be able to concentrate. The children will be afraid of noise,” she said.

“Without the riding school I won’t be able to teach the children how to care for animals properly. They won’t be able to learn to ride. It would close us down.”

John is calling for a compromise that would move the solar farm further from the sanctuary, so she can keep offering the provision in Bynea.

She said the visits were written into children’s individual development plans for a reason. “They can’t be in school all day. This is their escape. This is their sanctuary,” she said.

“Are we going to take all that away for a solar farm that could be moved to somewhere else or negotiated to certain fields?”

One regular visitor, teenager Dexter Howell, called the sanctuary a second home. He said it was “the place that stops me being antisocial and start talking to people”, and that he would hate to see it close.

His mother, Carrie, said owners Phil and Zara had not only given her son an education but had changed his life.

The plans have united opponents from opposing parties, with Labour’s Cundy and Reform councillor Michelle Beer both campaigning against the development.

A petition started by Beer has now passed 2,000 signatures and calls on both PEDW and Carmarthenshire County Council to reject the application.

It argues the development would turn 120 acres of productive farmland into an industrial site, ringed by a fence more than three metres high and stretching over three kilometres.

Campaigners also fear glare from the panels could hamper the Wales Air Ambulance, and raise concerns about noise from more than a dozen industrial inverters, historic mining beneath the land, and the effect on nearby homes.

Windel Solar 11 Ltd says the project will provide local renewable energy, support biodiversity through native planting and contribute to the local economy.