Solar farm plan approved despite flooding fears

Plans for a large solar farm to be built in North Yorkshire have been approved despite concerns from residents in nearby villages that it could worsen flooding in the area.

Panels would be installed on a 66-hectare site east of Wormald Green, near Ripon.

The farm would generate enough energy to power 12,000 homes a year, according to applicant Harmony WG Solar Limited, with the scheme also including an access road from the A61.

Councillor Keith Townson said flooding in nearby village Burton Leonard had become more regular in recent years and would be exacerbated by the solar farm.

Towson told the meeting of North Yorkshire Council's planning committee that residents did not object to the principle of solar farms.

But he said: "Water, even in just normal rainfall let alone the storms that we recently experienced, will not just drip off the bottom panels but will stream off the total length of all these rows of solar units.

"Flooding will be worse in a village already hit by crisis flooding.

"In the 1970s, Burton Leonard flooded once or twice a year. We now have four or five major floods and it's getting worse at an increasing rate."

Villagers also felt that agricultural land should be used to grow food, he said.

Frances Nicholson, development director at Harmony Energy, said the local flood authority had concluded the solar farm would not worsen flooding in the area, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

She said the scheme would "make a significant contribution to securing our homegrown energy supply and will provide £40m of supply chain contracts, all contributing to high-skilled jobs and UK taxes".

Councillor Andy Brown told the meeting there was a "difficult" balance to be struck.

"On one level we're saying we're getting flooding in the villages because of climate change and on another level we're saying we need solar panels," he said.

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