Sign up to challenge solar spread

Andrew Mynors is calling for a national land-use policy to manage the growth of solar and other alternative energy.

Staffordshire communities worried about the solar land grab across the county’s countryside are invited to join the call for better planning.

Staffordshire County Council is arguing that a national land-use policy is needed to manage the growth of solar and other alternative energy, rather than planning applications being decided across the eight different district and borough councils in Staffordshire.

With local farmland increasingly being proposed for acres of solar panels and battery storage, Staffordshire County Council is proposing the need for a national policy, which also recognises how much land is needed for food production.

Andrew Mynors, Staffordshire County Council’s Cabinet member for Connectivity, said:

The current fragmented planning policy is effectively allowing a solar land grab in Staffordshire.

Our rural communities are under attack from developers who want to build industrial scale solar farms.

And using farmland for solar energy forces Staffordshire to make a choice between food and energy security. 

We must take a common-sense approach to balancing competing land demands before it’s too late.

We are arguing for the right powers to put solar in the right places – and be allowed to take an overview about how Staffordshire plays a fair part in fuelling UK plc.

If residents back this idea, I ask them to show their support for our approach by registering here.”

With Government calculating the UK’s energy needs for 2050, Staffordshire County Council also wants the same calculation for how much land is needed for food independence – so resources can be allocated as needed.

As well as the ad hoc growth of solar plants and battery storage facilities in Staffordshire, the county council is also concerned:

• that the majority of solar and battery storage applications appear to be from investors with no responsibility to the communities in which they will be based;
• about the long-term safety of these sites;
• that the majority of applications are on farmland and greenfield sites rather than in urban areas such as rooftops, car parks or other industrial locations.

Andrew Mynors added:

Staffordshire will play its part in meeting the increasing energy needs of ‘UK plc’ but this should be done in a balanced, informed way which shares the responsibility even-handedly.

In the coming weeks and months we will be campaigning for Government to recognise the need for a common-sense, coordinated approach.”