SOUTH Dorset MP Richard Drax has refused to comment on yesterday’s High Court ruling to quash plans for a solar farm on land he owns

Lawyers for Katharine Butler, daughter of diplomat Sir Michael Butler, who lived at Mapperton until his death a year ago, brought the case to judicial review.

Mrs Butler - who fought plans for the farm on land near her family home - also had the backing of the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

Yesterday the High Court quashed the planning application for the solar farm on the land owned by Mr Drax at Mapperton.

Following the ruling Mr Drax’s spokesman told the Daily Echo the MP would be making no comment on the issue.

The development had been proposed by Good Energy. The developers said the scheme would generate enough clean electricity to supply 6,000 homes.

Mrs Butler said: “We are delighted. I think it’s vindicated our view of the project. It has been a long, expensive haul.”

Deputy High Court Judge Rhodri Lewis Price QC agreed that East Dorset District Council’s planning committee had been misled by an officers report recommending to grant permission

“My father got permission from East Dorset District Council to be buried on the hills overlooking our family home,” said Mrs Butler.

“Ironically, he would have had the most glorious view of 90,000 photovoltaic panels should this have gone ahead.

“I don’t know if he had a strong believe in the afterlife but to have his final resting place, which he chose specifically for its beauty, to be turned into an industrial landscape would have been deeply depressing.”

Mrs Butler said she believes on smaller scale solar energy projects, on individual buildings and on brownfield sites.

She added: “I am not opposed to solar energy, we have panels on the house. This application was simply too large.”

The application was originally given the green light by East Dorset District Council’s planning committee two years ago, but this was later overturned. A revised application - with panels over 110 acres rather than 175 - was approved in July last year.

Although there were more than 700 objections, with campaigners saying the plans would affect a protected landscape, the district council ruled in favour of the proposal would “contribute significantly to the UK’s target of 15 per cent of its energy generation from renewables by 2020.”