Application for 2,600 solar panels set to be approved on Doncaster village farm with extensive planning history

During next week’s planning meeting, Doncaster Council’s planning committee is set to approve the erection of 2,640 solar panels on Red House Farm in High Melton.

If approved, it will become the second application from the farm owners to be approved in two months.

It comes after an application for a large fertiliser storage lagoon was approved last month despite opposition from 128 residents on the grounds of the odour created.

The owners’ new plan for a solar farm has received 16 letters of objection from residents.

Reasons include that it is technically inappropriate development on green belt land, a misuse of the grade II farming land it will be built on, and further encroachment from the farm onto the village’s scenery.

20 letters have been received in support however, stating that the visual impact would be minimal, it benefits the community, and it is an appropriate use of green belt land due to its environmental benefit.

The solar farm would produce 1.03MW which would be used solely by the land owners.

In 2021, an enquiry was launched into the owners after they erected a fertiliser storage silo of a smaller size than the one granted last month, without planning permission.

Permission was however later granted, allowing it to remain.

Planning officers have recommended that the solar farm application is granted, stating that despite the land use being technically inappropriate, the environmental benefits outweigh the negatives.