Lime Down Solar Park , if it goes ahead will decimate some of the finest agricultural producing land in Wiltshire. It is spread over five massive sites. Note just how much extra land will be required for the cabling.
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The installation of Solar PV does not "decimate" land as you have said. The land will hardly adversely be affected. compared to other human activity the installation won't have such deep foundations as building a factory or even a power station. The installation of PV does not pollute the land like other industrial processes, and ultimately the land can easily be returned to completely to farming if or when the PV systems is no longer required. Try doing that for almost any other type of building especially where chemicals or other pollutants may have been used.
Whilst a PV array might restrict arable farming, in many places where Solar has been installed the site can still be grazed, in fact grazing is a great way to keep the site from being over run by grasses and weeds.
The routing of feed in cables may be a little contentious, but if the area as a whole was to have its electrical supply updated as a development of the National Grid without the PV similar amounts of land would have been required for underground systems. As others have said in most places where such work is carried out the land is restored and nature quite quickly disguises the works. The location of the cables may need to be protected from future developments but that is no different to the situation today with power, gas, water mains and sewers.
I can understand that some locals may feel the construction of a solar PV farm will spoil the visual appearance of an area, But when its operating It wont create noise, smells or spills its Vegan friendly, and it will make the UK even more independent on energy supplies from fossil fuels, and source from abroad.
We have a very idyllic view of the English landscape, rolling hills and hedgerows, meadows and rivers etc - even canals, But the reality is the English countryside is almost all been changed by man, and most of the views we seek so hard to protect are not the natural state of our landmass but are derived from centuries of land owners wishing to partition and demarcate their land ownership, along with farming on an industrial scale.
Solar PV and wind farms are just the next phase of our conquering our habitat.