Residents to challenge solar farm approval in court

The overturned refusal of a solar farm will be challenged in the High Court, a community group has said.

Back in April, the Planning Inspectorate overruled Durham County Council's decision to turn down the proposal for land near Burnhope, despite hundreds of objections and an appeal.

Community group Keep it Green, which led the 2024 action, said it supported solar energy "in the right place", but could not accept a process which "overrides a community that has already been proved right once in the High Court".

The government has previously said its planning framework ensured renewable energy projects could be built without impacting the environment.

Lightsource bp's proposals will see up to 14 fields overlaid with panels, including areas near a nature reserve.

It has said the scheme had been "carefully" designed to minimise impacts and there were measures to "enhance" the environment.

But some residents said the village had been "betrayed" and warned the development would take away the only flat route out of the uphill village and affect curlew breeding sites.

Keep it Green said the site was created 25 years ago by planning conditions, and was promised as "compensation" to the community after being surrounded for years by opencast mining.

"We were promised this landscape back after the opencast. Now we are being asked to give it up again," said Ian Galloway, who leads the community group.

"It is the one safe, level, accessible place left for people here to walk - and for many, with poor health and no car, there is nowhere else to go."

Plans were initially approved by the council in 2023 - a year before Reform took control - but the campaign group won a judicial review, which saw the decision quashed by a high court judge.

An application was resubmitted in 2024 and turned down by the council, but the decision was overturned by the Planning Inspectorate, which said the need to tackle climate change and achieve net zero targets outweighed the concerns.

The leader of the Reform-run local authority Andrew Husband has called on the government to review "overly permissive" planning policy wording after the decision.

Labour North Durham MP Luke Akehurst has also opposed the scheme, saying it was "incredibly unfair" the refusal had been overturned.

"While I recognise the need for solar energy, I do not believe Burnhope is the right location for this type of development, and I will not support it," he said.

"I have made representations to the Secretary of State and will work with Durham County Council and residents to challenge this decision."

Local Labour councillor Alison Gray added losing the only flat walking space for residents would impact negatively on the health and wellbeing of the village.

Keep it Green said the fresh challenge came as the government moves to fast-track major energy schemes and to restrict the grounds on which communities can seek judicial review of planning decisions.

It means solar farms above 100MW in England are now examined directly by the Planning Inspectorate with final decisions made by the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.

The number of attempts at legal challenge against government decisions on major infrastructure projects are also limited to one rather than three for cases deemed by the court as totally without merit.

Although it does not apply to the Burnhope solar farm - which will stand at 49.9MW - the campaigners warned under the reforms, a community like their's might never have had the chance to be heard.

"This is bigger than fourteen fields in County Durham. We exercised a basic democratic right - to ask a court whether a decision was lawful - and we won. If that right is closed off, it can happen anywhere, to anyone," said Kate Palmer from Keep it Green.

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