Yorkshire Post, Chris Berry
8th October 2022

Until two years ago farming couple Robert and Emma Sturdy were living in harmony with their young family at Eden Farm in Old Malton where Robert had become the third generation to tenant on what is predominantly good quality, productive arable land.

Robert and Emma had the normal farming pressures of managing rising input costs and fluctuating market prices for grain, nothing more than the usual, until Robert received an email and phone call that has gone on to put the farm and his family’s life and future on hold, their mental wellbeing severely tested and facing an uncertain future.

The couple have since launched a campaign called Save Old Malton Countryside with its aims of protecting their farming future, prime agricultural food producing land, the countryside, the rural community and food security and have the backing of local MP for Thirsk & Malton, Kevin Hollinrake.

It is a fight that has seen them lobbying for new laws to be put into place regarding solar development being allowed on prime agricultural land and Emma said it has completely taken over their lives.

“We haven’t wanted to go down this path. We talk about nothing else, we attend everything we can, including the Yorkshire Post Rural Conference last week, and we are trying to run a business at the same time. Farming is challenging enough without this on top.

“We decided that we had no choice but to defend ourselves and we founded a campaign to protect our business, livelihood and our home from this huge solar development by Harmony Energy. We know that renewable energies are required, but not at the expense of productive agricultural land.

“When we first started talking about this, we had no idea what a hot potato it would become. Nobody had a clue what we were talking about at first. It has now become a national issue and we are now part of an alliance of 42 others who are also battling against solar energy being utilised on good farmland. It’s very easy for landlords and developers to over-simplify a very multi-faceted problem that has huge consequences.

When Robert and Emma first found they might lose some tenanted land they had no idea of the scale, nor the devastating effect it would have on their livelihood.
“We were told by a land agent working on behalf of our landlords the Fitzwilliam Trust that some of our land had been identified as having potential for solar development,” said Robert.

“I wasn’t too alarmed. We’d had a previous occasion when we had lost 16 acres of farmland that had been designated as the new site for Malton livestock market, to move from the centre of town to here, and we’d had that taken out of our tenancy agreement. It had been replaced with 40 acres on a long-term FBT.
“I just thought a solar development would mean taking another field and we would be given another in return, or some similar arrangement to the previous occasion.

Robert said the full impact became clear when a land agent working on behalf of their landlords visited the following month.  “Until then there had been no talk of the acreage involved. The agent told us that we would be losing 130 acres. Our whole farm business is only 280 acres. I was shocked. The farm would be unviable. I had invested in farm machinery and a new grain store that was built for growing crops over 280 acres not 150.

Emma said she had to fight back her emotions as the facts emerged.
“I nearly burst into tears, because when the agent said ‘this is the proposal’ and gave us all an A3 sheet that showed the land we would be losing I just looked at the size of it. I felt sick. It was so out of the blue.
“The first thing the agent said to Rob was, had he got some other land? And then the agent said that perhaps Rob could perhaps find another income, maybe by taking up some fencing contracting work. It was so condescending.”
Since then, Emma said she and Robert have fought and continue to fight all the way.

“Our focus has always been on endeavouring to keep a good relationship with our landlords, who we met with for the first time about this issue in June this year. We have been told for the past year that a planning application is imminent. At a public meeting of Malton Town Council in June 2021 it was recommended that further consultation between tenant and landlord was needed, which was accepted by all parties.

“AHA (Agricultural Holdings Act) tenancies were established in a very different social climate and need updating. It is a whole other issue, but relevant to our situation. Rob’s AHA tenancy talks about enabling the landlord to serve notice to quit for non-agricultural purposes if planning permission is granted, but this is a new form of non-agricultural purpose since the act was established in 1986. Back then, no-one had even thought about solar development.
“There has been no offer of replacement land and discussions with the landlords are ongoing. So, as yet there is nothing to recognise the loss of security of tenure we have if the application is granted. We would have no guarantee that the remaining land and ultimately our family home would not be under threat from further applications in the future – and we want to continue farming here as Rob’s father and grandfather have done previously, producing food.
“Harmony Energy contacted us direct and wanted to negotiate with us, which was all well and good, but our relationship, contract and tenancy is with Fitzwilliam Trust.

Robert and Emma’s fight for their livelihood goes on. When MP Kevin Hollinrake spoke on ITV’s Calendar programme he said that he was in favour of solar development but that he did not want to see it on productive agricultural land.