"As an enthusiastic supporters of solar energy many people might expect that Craven Greens would always back any proposal to build a solar farm. Not so. It makes little sense to take perfectly good agricultural land out of production and replace it with solar panels. There are quite enough roofs and there is quite enough derelict and degraded land to enable us to exploit this power source without damaging the environment. There is also massively more to be achieved by investing in energy conservation such as better insulation, so that we radically reduce demand, than there is by building solar panel sites in inappropriate locations.
So it was with some disappointment that I read in the Craven Herald last week that a part of Bentham's agricultural land will be given over to solar panels despite the proposal having been turned down by the local council. This is yet another example of a remote national planning body created by the Conservative government over-riding local decision making. It is the result of the recent introduction of a planning system that favours developers over local people's wishes. It is not the result of sensible moves to modernise our economy by moving over to sustainable forms of energy generation and storage whilst investing in reduced use. I trust none of your readers will confuse the two."