Residents will be blocked from lodging objections to massive solar farms near their homes under Labour’s sweeping planning reforms.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to fast-track colossal clean energy projects using new powers that curb community scrutiny.
Incensed rural residents are warning of a ‘solar farm free-for-all’, with Parliament able to approve controversial schemes simply by deeming them of ‘critical national importance’.
Judicial reviews – legal action to scrutinise the decision-making process – will no longer be permitted, except on ‘human rights grounds’, according to the Treasury.
The Government said the move is an essential part of wider measures aiming to boost the UK’s energy security and soften the economic fallout from the Iran war.
In recent weeks, a government inspector gave the go-ahead for 110,640 solar panels to be installed across 14 fields at Burnhope in County Durham, declaring the sprawling scheme was necessary to ‘achieve net zero targets’.
The solar farm will border a popular nature reserve and breeding ground for curlews, one of the UK’s most endangered birds.
Ian Galloway, of Burnhope’s ‘Keep it Green’ campaign group, raided his private pension pot to fund legal fees after taking a four-year fight to the High Court.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves (pictured) is set to fast-track colossal clean energy projects using new powers that curb community scrutiny
Residents will be blocked from lodging objections to massive solar farms near their homes under Labour’s sweeping planning reforms
He said: ‘I’m 67 and I’ve never seen a government acting this way before. The vast majority of people in the village are against this scheme. Our only hope now is to try to delay it as much as we can before the next general election.’
Reform UK, Durham council’s ruling party, is unwilling to spend ‘hundreds of thousands of pounds’ in further legal challenges.
Planning councillor Joe Quinn said: ‘The Government are going to make it nigh on impossible to do judicial reviews.
‘Everybody we speak to – planners, officers and even a KC – says the same thing – ‘Your chances of winning are so slim you might as well just chuck the money down the drain unfortunately.’
Power company Lightsource said it had ‘engaged with the local community’ and put measures in place to ‘enhance’ the environment.
Under Ms Reeves’ plans, low-carbon energy schemes and infrastructure projects, including solar and wind farms, will be accelerated to meet the goal for a virtually zero-carbon power system by 2030.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England last night urged the Government to focus on using brownfield sites for solar farms instead.
