A BUSINESS owner says her livelihood has been pushed to the brink by a sprawling solar farm.
Thurrock councillors who heard how four new homes could be the only way to save her wellness hotel retreat and protect more than 50 local jobs have approved the scheme despite a recommendation to refuse the green belt scheme reports the Local Democracy Reporter.
Thurrock Council’s planning committee met on Tuesday to consider an application from the Glass House Retreat in Harrow Road, Bulphan, which is seeking outline permission to build four detached homes on unused land behind the site.
Owner Joy Jarvis told councillors the proposal was driven not by profit, but by necessity.
“When we bought this land in 2016, the retreat was surrounded by open countryside,” she said. “But the solar farm has transformed the environment. What was once countryside is now a sea of glass and metal. Footfall has fallen significantly. We are being forced to adapt to survive.”
Mrs Jarvis said she and her husband had invested everything into the wellness retreat, even selling their own home. She said the only viable route to protecting the business—and the jobs of her 54 staff—was to shift partly to a day visitor model. That change, she said, required major investment the business could not currently afford.
A small parcel of unused land, she argued, could provide the financial stability needed.
“My bank has agreed to loan us the money to build these houses to sell them, and the proceeds will go into the retreat,” she said. “Without this permission, we genuinely fear our business will not survive.”
Committee members expressed frustration at the wider context, with Conservative councillor Tom Kelly questioning how large developers were approved on green belt land while local businesses struggled for support.
“I find it hard to argue this is destruction of green belt when we built a solar farm around their establishment,” he said.
Jacqui Maney, also Conservative, said she typically defended green belt protections but believed the circumstances were exceptional.
“That solar farm is a blot on the landscape,” she said. “To deny these people four houses beggars belief. It’s one of the rare occasions I will be voting for something on the green belt.”
However, planning officers concluded the site was in an unsustainable rural location and the “very special circumstances” required for green belt development had not been met. They warned the scheme would urbanise a sensitive fenland landscape and cause significant harm to openness.
