Durham council leader’s plea to protect area from solar farms

Andrew Husband, Reform leader at Durham County Council, urged the government to protect “valued landscapes” and change its planning policies to create a “fair and balanced” approach to solar farm applications. 

The Chester-le-Street councillor wrote to Luke Akehurst MP after plans for a large-scale solar farm near Burnhope were overturned at appeal last month.  

Durham County Council initially turned down the application due to its size and impact on the landscape after hundreds of objections and a High Court appeal in July last year.  

But in a new ruling in April, the government’s Planning Inspectorate said the need to tackle climate change and achieve Net Zero targets outweighed the concerns.  

Cllr Husband said it is “very frustrating” that the concerns were “set aside as a result of the government’s overly permissive policy approach to solar development”. 

In a letter to the North Durham Labour MP, he added that other parts of the region are also at high risk of being used for similar schemes. 

He said: “I would invite you to now support your residents by using your undoubted influence in Government to request that urgent action is taken to review the currently overly permissive National Planning Policy Framework policy wording to ensure a more fair and balanced approach to solar development is applied. 

“Until government policy is amended in this manner – to introduce a more balanced approach to include one which seeks to protect valued landscapes and respect residents’ quiet enjoyment of the same – I fear that we will be subjecting our communities to yet more unwarranted commercialisation of our splendid countryside.”

Up to 14 fields near the County Durham village will be overlaid with panels, including areas near the Chapman’s Well nature reserve. 

Lightsource bp, the applicant, added that the solar farm would have “a significant positive impact on the surrounding area, both environmentally and economically”.  

The Planning Inspectorate conceded that the development would “harm” the local area, but the solar farm will only be working for up to 40 years. 

Its report concluded: “The adverse landscape impacts identified would be temporary, reversible and highly localised.”

Are solar farms changing the countryside too much? Let us know in the comments.