Andrew Rendall, president of the Cangoura Solar Action Group, is a neighbour to the "Cangoura" property on Eleven Mile Drive at Eglinton, where French company Neoen proposes to build a large solar farm.

Andrew, and his father Lachlan (Solar Farm Could Destroy Existing Tree Plantation, Says Rendall, July 2), have to date been the most vocal opponents to this proposal.

They claim that trees will be destroyed and prime agricultural land will become unproductive due to the industrial scale of the solar farm.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

READ ALSO:

The few trees that exist within the project boundary are concentrated along East Saltram Creek to prevent erosion.

This area will remain protected as this solar farm will not be built over waterways and gullies.

As for the potential loss of agricultural land, all five of Neoen's operational solar farms (Parkes, Dubbo, Griffith, Coleambally and Numurkah) continue to have sheep grazing happily under and around the solar panels.

At the same time as Neoen was proposing a solar farm at Eglinton, another proposal was being floated which would have an even greater effect on the whole of the Bathurst region.

It was Bathurst Regional Council's Vision Bathurst 2040, which will determine land use within the Bathurst Regional area for the next 20 years.

Right in the centre of plans for the next two decades is council's proposal to rezone the agricultural land to the north of Eleven Mile Drive for residential use.

This valuable and historic agricultural land will be literally covered in hundreds of houses.

Vision Bathurst 2040 planning document was open for public comment until recently and out of the 50 submissions made to council, not one came from any member of the Rendall family.

Is it perfectly fine to concrete over all the properties north of Eleven Mile Drive with houses, but not okay to graze sheep under solar panels on one of these properties?