Councillors have given the go-ahead for a large solar farm in the North Yorkshire countryside.
Members of North Yorkshire Council’s strategic planning committee voted unanimously to approve plans for a 39.3MW solar scheme on 80 hectares of agricultural land to the north of Brompton-on-Swale.
Brompton Solar Ltd was given permission to build the scheme on two parcels of land on either side of the A1(M), subject to a maintenance plan for the site being agreed with the council.
The western edge of the proposed green energy site lies within 400m of the edge of the existing Skeeby solar farm, which was Yorkshire’s largest when it went live last year.
The Brompton scheme will connect to the existing substation near Skeeby.
Councillor Andy Brown said the scheme would deliver biodiversity improvements for the area.
“There will be significant improvements in the wildlife. There will be a lot more butterflies than there would be on a monocultured crop sprayed to death.
“I think it’s a real help that the connection point is so close.
“I think it’s important that that connection site is at capacity so it puts a cap on endless cumulative applications going to the same site.”
Councillor Andrew Lee said he was concerned about the loss of agricultural land.
“This loss of the best value land is a concern.
“However, I do recognise that there is the existing substation and the site can be connected to that fairly easily.”
Several councillors said they noted that no members of the public spoke against the scheme at the meeting, which they said suggested there was limited local opposition to the solar farm.
The application was recommended for approval by planning officers who said the scheme would provide enough green energy to supply 10,000 homes a year.
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This states that the new Brompton Scheme will be directly contact to the existin Skeeby substation.
Within the last year or two a new very heavy duty cable was installed from the Skeeby Substation to Scotch Corner when the road had to be closed.
Does the mean if the new Scotch Corner Designer Village ever gets opened that almost all the power being generated by these new sites will all go straight up to Scotch Corner to power the 250 EV car charging points and all the new complex and leave very little if any extra clean power for the houses etc in nearby Richmond and surrounding area?
The very obvious way to provide clean power for houses etc in Richmond and surrounding areas is for Government to subsidise solar roof installations which will also help reduce the electricity bills. There is no need to destroy most valuable farmland just so that greedy solar farm applicants can make large quick profits selling projects before a spade has hit the ground (which is what happened at Skeeby and will probably happen at Brompton because it is the same planning applicants)
Evidently Councillor Brown is unaware that before construction work started at Skeeby 138 different bird species frequented the nearby area at the eastern edge of Richmond. Since it was constructed the number has massively decreased to 83 species. Brown fails to observe that the many owl and raptor species as well as ground dwelling birds that frequented the open fields in our area have had their habitat destroyed by Skeeby solar farm and the same will happen at Brompton. These combined solar farms which were originated by the same greedy quick profit applicants will decimate the bird species between Richmond and Brompton on Swale. Brown quite obviously has not visited Skeeby Solar farm otherwise he would have observed that extremely small hedging plants have been planted which will struggle to survive the dry weather we have been experiencing. It will be a very long time before they have any positive biodiversity impact, if any. As for his alleged crop spraying, again he is unfamiliar with how farmers operate in our area and rotate crops (not mono-culture) including fallow years. Brown does not represent or have any understanding of the existing biodiversity in our area, he is a councillor for Aire Valley! Are there any ugly solar farms blighting the landscape and destroying existing biodiversity there? Brown should stick to solar farm decisions in his own area and not have any say in what happens in our local area.