Leeds City Council proposes contaminated land for solar farms

Solar energy farms could be built on contaminated land across Leeds.

The city council wants to install ore solar panels on sites across the city, as long as the chosen land could not be used for food, farming or housing.

Permission was given for a huge solar energy farm between Kippax and Allerton Bywater in east Leeds last year.

Councillor Helen Hayden said more parks could be created, but warned publicly owned sites once used for landfill or mining were at a premium.

Speaking at a meeting of the council's climate emergency advisory committee, Ms Hayden said: "We are looking at land that can't be used for housing and can't be used for agriculture - contaminated land - for solar farms, to provide Leeds City Council's energy use."

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Ms Hayden, the authority's executive member for infrastructure and climate change, said there was a "shortage" of public fields owned by the council which could be used to generate solar energy.

"That's the type of land we should be using for things like solar farms. Land that can't be used productively for food or housing and that's not in the greenbelt."

She added: "We are actively looking at that."

Ms Hayden explained that while the authority cannot decide whether or not private land is turned into energy farms, the roofs of council buildings could be a possible location.

Liberal Democrat councillor Conrad Hart-Brooke backed the plan, saying: "One thing we do have a lot of in the UK are roofs, which are exactly the right place for solar panels because they're already there."

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