{"id":272830,"date":"2026-01-07T20:38:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T20:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/272830\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T20:38:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T20:38:25","slug":"food-shortage-concerns-over-north-yorkshire-solar-farm-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/272830\/","title":{"rendered":"Food shortage concerns over North Yorkshire solar farm plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

The council has questioned a report which grades the land earmarked for the development at East Appleton Farm as grade 4, meaning it is poor quality agricultural land.\n<\/p>\n

It says adjacent land was classified a mixture of grade 3a and grade 3b, which is good and moderate quality land respectively.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

Stating that it believes the land earmarked for the solar farm has not been correctly classified, the parish council adds: \u201cThe council considered that if we keep allowing prime agricultural land to be used for such purposes, we should not be surprised if, one day, we find ourselves asking a very basic question: where is the food going to come from?\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t be a country which produces some of the finest produce in the world to the highest standards dependant on imports of lower-grade and sub-standard produce.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cDomestic food security is national security and it must be protected.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The parish council outlined a number of other concerns about the application, including fears it would lead to an increased risk of flooding, the development being a fire hazard and the disruption to wildlife.\n<\/p>\n

A total of 117 objections to the scheme have been received by North Yorkshire Council, with 25 in support.\n<\/p>\n

Historic England has also raised concerns about the impact of the solar farm on two historic round barrows, which its describes as \u201cremarkably well-preserved\u201d Bronze Age burial mounds.\n<\/p>\n

The public body has called for further assessments to be carried out to better understand the impact of the scheme on the monuments.\n<\/p>\n

Applicants Enviromena say the solar farm would produce enough renewable energy to power more than 11,000 homes a year.\n<\/p>\n

Lee Adams, chief commercial officer at Enviromena, said: \u201cOur application is being considered through the local planning process, where agricultural land classification is assessed in line with national guidance.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis assessment has been undertaken by independent, appropriately qualified specialists, with the findings considered by the local planning authority as part of its decision-making.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognise the importance of local views and engagement, and have undertaken extensive community consultation to help shape the proposals.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cFeedback received has informed a number of changes to the scheme, including amendments to site access arrangements to respond to concerns raised by local residents and the parish council.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Mr Adams said the submitted plans included detailed environmental assessments and mitigation measures to \u201cminimise impacts and ensure each project contributes positively to the UK\u2019s clean energy transition, while supporting the delivery of safe, affordable, and reliable renewable energy\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The council has questioned a report which grades the land earmarked for the development at East Appleton Farm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[18,440,19,17,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-272830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-science"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115855748368483922","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}