MP calls for solar farm application to be sent back for new consultations

Rawmarsh and Conisbrough MP John Healey has challenged the application as “fundamentally flawed” because of the way public consultations were conducted.

The scheme - if allowed - would run across three sites, focused around Conisbrough Parks in Doncaster, Ulley and the Wales/Kiveton Park and Woodall districts.

Together, the schemes are so large that a decision on whether it will be allowed will be made by the Government, rather than local councils as is normal.

Mr Healey has questioned Whitestone’s methods of consultation and in his letter to Chief Planning Inspector Rebecca Phillips, said: “By combining these separate schemes into one application, the developer has forced communities, with very different circumstances, into an artificial single consultation.

“As a result, residents were not given clear information about which part of the scheme affects their own locality.

“Consultation events and materials were presented in generic terms and did not address the distinct issues arising in each of the three areas,” his letter states.

He cites planning legislation which obliges developers to “provide clear, complete and accessible information, and to design a consultation that enables residents to understand proposals and respond meaningfully.”

He goes on to ask that she looks “to assess the adequacy and validity of the Whitestone consultation, before any considerations start of the development application now submitted.

“If you do so, I believe you will judge the Whitestone consultation is flawed and therefore you will order the company to re-run their consultations.”

Whitestone have already redrawn their plans, reducing the area to be used for solar panels by more than a third, alongside other changes which, they say were a result of feedback obtained through consultations.

Since the project - which is aimed at helping the country achieve carbon zero status by generating ‘clean’ energy - was announced, there have been widespread and well-orchestrated protests.

Objectors have argued that the scheme takes up too much open ground and would have too much of an impact on the character of the areas affected, including historic former parklands around Conisbrough.