Farmers Weekly
By Philip Case

Yorkshire tenant farmers Robert and Emma Sturdy are celebrating after winning a three-year battle against a large-scale solar panel development on their farm.

North Yorkshire Council has refused consent for a solar farm and battery storage system on tenanted farmland run by the Sturdy family in Old Malton.

If planning permission had been granted, solar developer Harmony Energy would have been allowed to build a £30m solar farm on 52ha of prime agricultural land, which would have taken away just over 40% of the Sturdys’ arable farmland.

See also: Family farm ‘reduced by half’ if solar plan wins approval

The Sturdy family’s Save Old Malton Countryside campaign had attracted national media attention, as the Fitzwilliam Trust, which owns the land, lists Helena Rees-Mogg, the wife of Conservative MP Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, as director.

The planning officer had recommended the solar project should be approved, but the planning committee overwhelmingly refused permission by 10 votes to four on Tuesday 10 October.

In making its decision, the committee expressed concern about the exceptional impact on the tenant farming business, the loss of best and most versatile agricultural land, the lack of any alternative site appraisal, and heritage impact.

Mrs Sturdy said: “We are delighted the councillors recognised the impact this development would have on us as tenants and the importance of retaining good agricultural land.”

TFA ‘hugely delighted’

The Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) last week urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is also the MP for Richmond in North Yorkshire, to reject the proposal.

Its chief executive, George Dunn, said he was “hugely delighted” for the Sturdy family.

“We will wait to see if the developer decides to appeal this decision, but it sends a really crucial message to all other developers that they cannot treat tenant farmers as merely collateral damage,” said Mr Dunn.

“I would hope it would also be clearly understood by all planning officers up and down the country that the impact on the personal circumstances of tenant farmers is a material consideration which they must take into account when they reach their decisions in respect of the recommendations to planning committees.”

Harmony Energy said it was “disappointed” by the outcome, adding that it “will not stop us from pushing for a more sustainable and greener future”.