Plan for 'green belt' solar farm rejected

A proposal to build a solar farm on a 77-hectare site in Doncaster has been refused by local councillors.

Members of the public applauded when the Marr Solar Farm was unanimously rejected by the City of Doncaster Council's planning committee on Tuesday.

Following two hours of statements, questions and debates, members of the committee decided the perceived benefits did not "clearly outweigh" the harms, despite planning officers recommending the scheme be approved.

Applicant Enviromena confirmed it intended to appeal against the decision.

The plans for Marr Solar Farm received more than 1,270 representations, which Nick Ballinger who spoke before the committee, said were all objections.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Mr Ballinger told members the site has grown potatoes, wheat and barley. He said the wheat grown on site could create 1.2 million loaves of bread.

Pamela Moorhouse, a Marr Parish Council member, told the committee it would be eight years before planting would offer any concealment of the site, which would be detrimental to the rural village.

City of Doncaster councillors Cynthia Ransome, Oliver Bloor and Rachel Reed all spoke against the proposals in the meeting, saying the plans would harm a local farm shop and tea room business

"It employs 30-plus local people, plus family members," said Ransome.

Ahead of the meeting, council papers showed that planning officers had amended the designation of the site, labelling it green belt rather than grey belt.

Grey belt is a term introduced by the Labour government, for "poor quality and ugly areas" of protected green belt, which can be built on.

Lee Adams, chief operating officer at Enviromena, told the committee the site could deliver £6.5m in business rates directly to the council during its 40-year life.

Speaking after the application was rejected Mark Harding, chief development officer at Enviromena, said: "We are extremely disappointed that councillors have gone against the professional assessment of their own officers, who recommended this scheme for approval even after revising their designation view."

Enviromena informed the LDRS it had recently won an appeal in very similar circumstances elsewhere in the country, with the planning inspectorate overturning a refusal by councillors and confirmed the land in question should be grey belt.

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