A pensioner has won a seven-year battle against the development of a solar farm next to her village home after spending £100,000 of her own money to take the council to court in a bitter legal battle.
Chala Fiske took her local council all the way to the Court of Appeal to prevent the eco-project from going ahead and came out of a David vs Goliath battle with a ‘landmark’ victory.
At one stage, the retired mathematician’s husband feared she would go bankrupt as she waged war on the council over its plans to transform the land into a solar farm in the historic settlement of East Wellow, Hampshire.
‘I’m retired, I’m an OAP, I don’t like being bullied,’ the 78-year-old said as she celebrated her victory without her late husband who died earlier this year before a verdict was reached.
Test Valley Borough Council (TVBC) first approved plans for the 46 megawatt solar farm – which could power up to 14,000 homes – in 2017 which included more than 80,000 ground-mounted solar panels and an electricity substation.
The village of 3,000 people – where Florence Nightingale is buried – dates back to the Domesday Book and houses regularly sell for more than £800,000.
Mrs Fiske, who is originally from Thailand, has lived next to the fields since 1982 and objected to the solar farm from the start because she believes the farmland would be better used producing food.
‘The problem I had with it is this country can’t provide its own food,’ she said. ‘We’ve got about 40 per cent food security and if we have the war, and we’re close to a war, we just won’t be able to do anything.
Chala Fiske took her local council all the way to the Court of Appeal to prevent the project going ahead and came out of a David v Goliath battle with a ‘landmark’ victory. The field where the development was marked for is bordered red, adjacent to Mrs Fiske’s home (green)
‘We know we can’t even fight a war, so food security on an island is very very important, it really is.’
The UK government’s website states that the country is ‘highly dependent on imports to meet consumer demand for fruits, vegetables and seafood’, while domestic production of food available in the UK is said to be ‘around 60%’.
Mrs Fiske added: ‘I’m not against the solar farm so much, I’m against it because it’s on good land.’
Mrs Fiske successfully challenged the council in the High Court in 2023, when a judge ruled that proposed amendments to Woodington Solar Farm weren’t compatible with planning conditions which had been put in place in 2017.
The council lost their appeal against this judgement on December 10 2024.
Hailing the ‘landmark judgement’, Mrs Fiske said her seven-year battle has cost her £100,000, meaning she’s spent the money she gained at the turn of the century when she was made redundant.
She said: ‘TVBC must’ve spent the same. In fact they had two barristers, I only had one.
‘I’m probably the first person who has ever done it against them, so they’re trying to make me an example of don’t do it but I’m the wrong person to do that to I’m afraid.’
Mrs Fiske said her seven-year battle has cost her £100,000. Pictured: A Hive Energy sign on a gate in the area
Mrs Fiske, whose husband Anthony Fiske, 78, died in April of this year, said: ‘My husband didn’t even want me to do it because he thought I would go bankrupt.’
She said she felt that residents’ ignorance about planning processes were ‘being used’, and though she ‘isn’t a lawyer’, she informed herself by reading the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
In the future, she would like the development that’s already been made on the solar farm to be undone, including the restoration of a footpath which was partly removed in the area to make way for heavy goods vehicles.
Mrs Fiske’s lawyer, Sara Hanrahan of firm Blake Morgan, said: ‘The ruling is important for planning law.
‘We are immensely pleased to have secured this outcome for our client who has fought long and hard to secure this landmark ruling.’
Local Conservative councillor Nick Adams-King, said that TVBC is currently considering its options.
‘It has been seven, eight years since (the application) was originally lodged,’ he said. ‘I think times have changed and our need for energy infrastructure and our need for energy security has changed in the intervening eight years.
‘So, although it is large, I think it is something that is going ahead and is a positive thing from that perspective. Albeit I would rather it wasn’t built in the location it’s been built.’
A Test Valley Borough Council spokesperson said: ‘The Council is currently considering the judgment of the Court of Appeal in the case of Test Valley Council vs Fiske, which relates to the construction of a solar farm at Woodington, East Wellow, before deciding what next steps need to be taken.’
