Mr Wall said the planting, a bank of trees up to 90 metres wide, was completely at odds with the 300-metre clear zone that residents had to maintain around three sides of their village to protect it against bushfire, after fire swept through the area destroying many homes in 2003.

The buffer zone contained no trees and was kept clear at a cost of $20,000 a year to the 100 households in the village.

On the fourth side of the village is Brindabella Road and across the road is the paddock where Elementus Energy plans to build the $24 million One Sun Capital Solar Farm, an array of 72 panels, as close as 100 metres to the nearest houses.

The company submitted a bushfire risk assessment with its development approval, which says the fire danger rating reaches very high or greater in the region about 17 times year and severe or extreme one or twice a year.

While the bushfire report points to an area of native vegetation directly adjoining the solar farm, it doesn't mention the planned planting zone along Brindabella Road.

Asked about this omission, Elementus managing director Ashleigh Antflick said the bushfire report had been prepared by independent consultants GHD, which had worked with the rural fire service and dealt with all the issues raised. The fire service had not raised the new screening planting, from which Elementus inferred it "did not believe it was a issue", he said.

Bushfire measures included water tanks onsite for firefighting, a circuit breaker to isolate the farm, which can be operated remotely by ActewAGL if necessary, and a 20-metre clear zone along the new power line.

The solar farm includes a new 4.3 kilometre, 22kV 25-pole power line from the Cotter Dam substation, most of it running alongside ActewAGL's 11kV line.

A 1.8-metre security fence would surround the solar array, with photovoltaic panels as close as 40 metres to Brindabella Road and reaching up to 3.84 metres high.

Mr Wall said bushfire risk had played a part in the design of the village since the destruction caused by the 2003 fires. As well as the cleared buffer zone around three sides of the village, sprinklers had to be installed in all of the houses, he said. It was ridiculous to allow the dense planting across the road.

"What landowners on one side of the road are forced to do seemingly gets disregarded on the opposite side of the road," he said. "If you’ve got to keep three sides of your village clear to mitigate the risk of bushfire why should the person on the other side of the road be allowed to plant substantial trees and shrubs right up to the boundary? This unnecessarily increases the risk for those who call Uriarra village home."

The company's development application is open for comment until July 25. It includes an assessment of the visual impact of the solar array. The planned trees, once mature, would be likely to screen views of the solar farm from most viewpoints but would also block the northern view. The solar farm would "be partly visible and inconsistent with the character of existing views”, although not inconsistent with other things that could have been built at the site.

Parts of Uriarra village that had a clear view of the site would experience "highly significant impacts”, the assessment said, but it pointed out that it had not been given access to the village and recommended a more detailed assessment be done.

Mr Antflick said the company had sought permission to enter the village for the visual impact work but the community had refused to allow it in. That was unfortunate because "we would gladly have done it", he said.