A battle over the future of more than 2,000 acres of Cotswolds countryside has taken an unexpected twist after a cousin of Princess Diana turned vigilante to fight plans for a solar farm.
The Hon Hugh Roche — a grandson of Baroness Fermoy, a friend and confidante of the late Queen Mother — embarked on a sting operation to find out who was tearing down signs opposing the controversial development.
Named Lime Down, it will cover farmland in an area of north Wiltshire approximately the size of 1,250 football pitches if approved by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.
In June, armed with a long-lens camera, sandwiches, a bottle of rosé and some books, Mr Roche turned detective, waiting in the coverage of the lower branches of a chestnut tree in the hamlet of Foxley, near Malmesbury.
Within 20 minutes he had documented a lycra-clad cyclist tearing the signs in half and discarding them on the floor.
An incensed Mr Roche accosted the suspect, later learning that he was local scout leader Angus Craig, who works for a green energy firm linked to the n backers of the Lime Down development.
Mr Craig insists he was acting in a personal capacity.
The rural spat finally reached a conclusion of sorts last week after Mr Craig — who was initially interviewed by Wiltshire Police under caution on suspicion of criminal damage — signed a community resolution.
Aimed at dealing with low-level crime, as part of the resolution, Mr Craig has to pay £71.97 for the signs damaged on June 30 — the day of the stakeout — and will have to undertake an online thinking skills course.
It is just the latest tussle dividing these affluent Cotswolds villages over the Lime Down plans.
Last week, the Mail told how former I’m a Celeb star Christine Hamilton and her ex-Tory MP husband Neil had stopped speaking to their next-door neighbours — friends for 20 years — after discovering they were offering up land for solar panels.
As well as signs being torn down, pro-solar demonstrators regularly deface ‘Stop Lime Down’ signs with the term ‘NIMBY’ — not in my back yard.
Mr Roche told the Mail: ‘It had happened the previous two Sundays… so on the third weekend I thought, ‘Right, I’m going to have you, you bugger.’
‘I set up a little hide with a comfortable picnic seat and I had food and drink to sustain me in case it turned out to be a lengthy surveillance operation.
‘I told my family what I was intending to do and they just thought I was bonkers.’
He added: ‘I was just upset that someone would consider it acceptable behaviour to be so petty, to tear down the signs of a protest group with whom he quite patently does not agree.’
Mr Roche’s father, Lord Fermoy, is buried on King Charles’ Sandringham Estate in Norfolk and his aunt, Frances Spencer, was Diana’s mother.
He currently runs a company which installs high-end audio or visual technology in homes.
The cyclist, Mr Craig, is a procurement director for Gridserve, a company set up in 2017 to develop, own and operate critical infrastructure for sustainable energy production.
It is installing electric vehicle charging points at 150 Roadchef sites after the motorway service firm was purchased by n asset management company Macquarie, which is also part-owner of Island Green Power, the firm behind Lime Down.
Mr Roche added: ‘There is more than enough space for all the solar panels we need on the tops of the nation’s buildings and not in rolling green countryside or on prime farmland.’
In response, Mr Craig told the Mail that he was ‘struck by the campaign against Lime Down which seems to be well-funded’, adding: ‘I think it’s more about trying to whip up emotional support about vague notions of the country being taken over by solar.’
He said: ‘I don’t quite understand why the police pursued it. There are people protesting peacefully all around the country and they at times may take down signs. Quite why taking down a sign in Wiltshire is noteworthy for the police is a surprise.’
Mr Roche added that he does want to ‘progress the challenge of climate change.’
A spokesman for Wiltshire Police said the force had ‘responded to reports of incidents of criminal damage of signs at a private property in Foxley’.
The force added: ‘A man in his 50s was interviewed under caution and this incident is being dealt with via a community resolution.’