Another huge solar farm is proposed just a few hundred metres from another separate plan.

The 69-hectare site comes under Horsmonden parish, but actually lies between Pearsons Green and Claygate and is only 2.3km from Marden.

Voltalia UK has submitted a planning application to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, seeking temporary permission – for 40 years – for the site which currently consists of seven agricultural fields.

It says the solar farm would create enough electricity to power 14,385 homes and would save 13,367 tonnes of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere each year compared with a similar amount of electricity being manufactured using fossil fuels.

The land at Bockingfold Farm is accessed from Maidstone Road and bordered by the River Teise to the north.

The site would be secured by a six-foot high steel mesh fence with CCTV cameras around the perimeter, but the applicant says it will not be lit at night.

Construction would take 34 weeks, with up to 60 workers on the site, erecting arrays of panels in east/west rows, facing south.

Each panel would be around six feet high.

The applicants say that at the end of the 40 years, the scheme would be fully reversible. Every item of construction could be removed and the land returned to its agricultural state.

A different renewable energy firm, Starkraft, has already announced plans for another solar farm, to be known as Sheepwash Solar Farm at nearby Collier Street.

That proposal would cover 74.5 hectares, to generate 49.9 megwatts of electricity. It has been opposed by a number of nearby residents, who have formed No To Marden Solar Farm, and who say the solar farm is practically the same size as the village of Marden.

Vickey Petrie, of Sheephurst Lane, Marden, said: "The two solar farms would be only 700 metres apart. But one falls under Tunbridge Wells Borough Council and one under Maidstone Borough Council."

She said: "We are highly anxious that there may be a lack of co-ordination between the two authorities."

Mrs Petrie was also sceptical of the suggestion that the site would be returned to green fields at the end of the permission period. She said: "None of these solar farms has endured that longevity to see what actually happens at the end."

The application for the Sheepwash Solar farm is due to go before a Maidstone planning committee on October 20. You can find it under application number 22/501335.

There is also a 39-hectare solar farm already built at Paddock Wood, and another 27-hectare Mathurst Solar Farm proposed for 2km south west of Staplehurst, near Curtisden Green.

One resident, Sarah Springhall, said: "The low Weald is becoming a checkerboard of industry and glass panels, destroying the rural landscape."

Comments on the Bockingfold Solar Farm proposal can now be made on the Tunbridge Wells council website.

You can find this one under application number 22/02773.