The Government is set today to warn local authorities that they should not grant planning permission for solar farms on high-quality farmland unless ‘necessary’.
A written ministerial statement aimed at clarifying when planning permission should be granted to the building of solar farms will be laid before Parliament today.
As well as cautioning against approving the construction of solar farms on farmland, the Government will also remind councils to consider the ‘cumulative impact’ of new solar farms.
Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho told the Telegraph that in the face of ‘rising threats around the world’, the Government's ‘renewed emphasis on our security’ means ‘protecting out food security whilst also delivering the cheap energy we need’.
Wiltshire Council is set to vote on Tuesday on whether it should call upon the Government to ensure that solar developments are ‘more evenly spread across the UK’, according to the Wiltshire Times.
The motion states that the council is ‘increasingly concerned at the concentration of solar farms, battery storage and associated infrastructure in Wiltshire.’
It also calls on local government secretary Michael Gove to define more closely what is meant by the ‘cumulative impact’ of solar farms.
