Climate protesters raise fears over Derbyshire council’s opposition to solar farms on greenfield land

Derbyshire campaigners constructed a ‘solar farm’ model outside Derbyshire County County Council’s County Hall after the authority has expressed its opposition to large-scale solar panel farms and battery energy storage systems on greenfield sites.

The Reform UK-led authority has argued that such schemes pose a threat to the county’s agricultural land and landscape despite claims such sites serve to meet Net Zero targets by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and that they increase energy security and will support economic growth.

But Derbyshire Climate Coalition campaigners held up mock solar panels and banners to indicate their support for renewable energy and tackling the climate crisis during the demonstration outside the council’s County Hall, on December 10th.

Derbyshire Climate Coalition campaigner Dave Locke said: “England has just suffered its second worst harvest in our history, following the warmest
summer and the driest spring in over 100 years.

“People in Derbyshire know that climate change is real and dangerous. This is just grandstanding by Reform UK councillors which fails to address the growing climate breakdown and does not recognise the impacts on the local farming industry.”

Climate campaigners concede there needs to be far more roof-mounted photovoltaic panels on homes, industrial and commercial buildings, car parks and brownfield sites but they argue that the need for cheaper, more secure, clean energy means we will also need solar farms.

Derbyshire Climate Coalition claims, according to  research published this year by the University of Lancaster, that it is estimated that it will require between 0.45 per cent and 0.82 per cent of the UK’s agricultural land to meet the Government’s objective of 70 Gigawatts of solar generating capacity by 2035 which campaigners claim represents just 0.6per cent of the total UK land area and roughly half the area of land used for golf courses in the UK. 

The National Farmers Union supports solar development on lower-grade agricultural land as a way to diversify income and improve farm sustainability, according to the campaigners who also claim the NFU’s guidance encourages dual-use approaches, such as grazing livestock under solar panels, planting wildflower meadows, and enhancing pollinator habitats, which can benefit biodiversity while maintaining some agricultural productivity.

Campaigners also claim that Derbyshire farmers were not consulted over the county council’s decision and they have expressed concerns.

Godfrey Meynell, who farms in the Kedleston and Hulland Ward area, said: “Many farmers recognise the climate crisis is changing the weather and how this makes our food systems vulnerable. To have any chance of combating the climate crisis we need to move from fossil fuels to clean energy, and solar farms are an essential part of the new energy mix.

“The loss of agricultural land is very small compared to the benefits of the clean energy produced per hectare. Farmers facing severe economic challenges need to be able to decide what’s right for their land and businesses.

“Reform UK’s idea of banning solar farms, and denying the critical need for net zero, is damaging for farmers as well as the wider public.”

Fellow Derbyshire farmer Jay Wild, who also farms near Hulland Ward, said: “Climate change is now such an acute crisis that we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as fast as possible. which means installing as much renewable energy as possible in the shortest time at the lowest cost.

“Roof mounted solar is good but many industrial buildings are old and the structures not strong enough – even Toyota is installing ground mounted solar rather than roof mounted solar panels.

“Agriculture is under severe stress from climate change and farmers such as myself need freedom to earn income from their own land whichever way they see fit, subject to planning permission.

“If a farmer wanted to put solar panels on their own land  why would any council want to stop that if it conforms with local planning policy?”

Mr Locke added that the council should leave planning to the district and borough councils and that any planning applications are reviewed on a case by case basis and conditions can be placed on them to ensure they are well managed for biodiversity and do not impact on high grade agricultural land.

Derbyshire Climate Coalition campaigner Christian Murray-Leslie said: “Solar farms are quiet, unpolluting and generate little or no traffic. They are also reversible unlike many other developments such as new roads and warehousing.

“The biggest threats to UK agricultural land are climate change – causing extreme weather, flooding, and drought, soil degradation through erosion and compaction, agricultural intensification, and biodiversity loss. If our councillors really care about protecting agricultural land this is what they should be focussing on.”

Derbyshire Climate Coalition campaigner Karl Barrow said that while Reform UK stress the importance of farmland for food security, they seem to ignore the prerequisite for a secure food supply which is a secure home grown energy supply that can only be delivered quickly by a rapid expansion of UK renewable generating capacity including solar.

He added: “Energy is required at every stage of food production from field to fork in dairy, meat processing, vegetable and fruit cultivation. Russia is finding it extremely difficult to fatally reduce Ukraine’s energy supply because of the widely distributed solar and wind generation network Ukraine has built.

“To put this in perspective, the Government aims to use less than 0.3per cent of UK land area for solar electricity generation. Over 0.5per cent of UK land is used for golf courses. Which is more important? Energy security, food security or golf?”

Protesters have claimed that the Reform UK motion is part of a wider pattern of denial driven by fossil fuel money claiming that nationally Reform UK has promised to tear up Net Zero legislation and the Climate Change Act, block renewable energy and expand oil and gas drilling, open coal mines, allow fracking and dismantle protections that keep homes, health and livelihoods safe.

The county council voted by a majority to oppose the development of large-scale solar-panel farms and battery energy storage systems on greenfield sites in the county in October in what it claims is a bid to protect the area’s countryside and food security.

Council Leader, Cllr Alan Graves, previously said: “We are clear as a council that rural Derbyshire will not stand idly by whilst good, usable agricultural land is sacrificed at the altar of Net Zero and turned into a Chinese manufactured eco desert.

“These plans are going to tear up the landscape of Derbyshire and change its very character. We are extremely worried that the views of residents and parish councils are being totally disregarded in favour of advancing the ruinous Net Zero agenda.”

Cllr Graves explained that even though the county council does not have the planning authority over many of these kind of applications, it hopes to send a ‘strong message’ to local district councils, MPs and the Government.

He argued such developments have implications for the wider county, including visual impact, traffic movements, land use change, and community cohesion.

Cllr Graves has said the county council is under attack from Net Zero schemes and that battery energy storage systems on farmland disrupt wildlife corridors and threaten future food security with the loss of agricultural land.

He has also stated the materials used for such schemes were being made in China and would have to be shipped halfway around the world to Derbyshire.

He added Britain needs energy security but not at the expense of food security and that South Derbyshire is expected to carry a ‘disproportionate burden’ and if these kind of schemes go-ahead they will destroy the very countryside the council aims to protect.

Conservative Group Leader, Cllr Alex Dale, also successfully called for an amendment to Cllr Graves’ original motion which was based purely on South Derbyshire so the council’s overall position now includes the whole of the county.

Green Party Cllr Gez Kinsella opposed and criticised Cllr Graves’ motion as ‘ill thought out’ and ‘problematic’ and he claimed that the Council for the Preservation of Rural England and the National Farmers’ Union are eager to protect high-grade farmland from solar farms but are less concerned about the use of low-grade farmland.

The Labour Government supports the expansion of solar power in its bid to achieve clean energy by 2030 and it also supports battery energy storage schemes which store excess electricity from renewable sources for later use as part of efforts to establish a decarbonised electricity grid and energy security.

It argues that such schemes support Net Zero targets by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and that they increase energy security and will support economic growth.

Derbyshire Climate Coalition’s protest coincided with two others at County Hall including Stop The Pylons Derbyshire’s campaign opposing National Grid’s roll-out of 60km of pylons across the county and Belper Together’s demo over the feared loss of community support beds at the Ada Belfield care home, in Belper.

The county council was given an opportunity to comment further on its position concerning solar panel farms but it had not responded by the time of publication.