Notices

Light Valley Solar consultation - May 2026

The Light Valley Solar Project (LVS), has been submitted to the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) under the Planning Act 2008.  The following comments have been submitted to the Planning Inspectorate by Escrick Parish Council in response to  the next stages of the NSIP process: 

The parish of Escrick recognises the national importance of renewable energy and supports the transition to a low-carbon economy. This support is not unconditional and must be balanced against the protection of valued landscapes, heritage assets and long term sustainability of rural communities.

The proposed development represents an extensive and industrial-scale intervention across a highly sensitive rural landscape immediately adjoining Escrick and the Escrick Park estate. The scale, distribution, and visual presence of the solar arrays and associated infrastructure would fundamentally alter the character of the area, eroding its openness and historic rural identity.

Particular concern is raised regarding the impact on the setting of heritage assets and the historic estate landscape, where the introduction of large-scale engineered structures would result in a clear and lasting harm to their significance and the close proximity to several isolated dwellings where occupants will effectively be swallowed by the development and encounter major ongoing disturbance not only though the build but throughout the sites operational life.

While the applicant highlights biodiversity enhancements and reversible land use, the duration of the development (up to 60 years) represents a generational change in land character, effectively constituting a long-term loss of agricultural landscape and rural amenity creating potential for yet further scarring on the already industrial battle scarred landscape through the areas efforts seen in the railway, quarrying, mining, and wartime sacrifices.

The justification for site selection appears to be primarily driven by grid connectivity and commercial land availability rather than landscape and area suitability, resulting in the inclusion of areas that are demonstrably sensitive and closely associated with established communities and large areas of needless damage to include Escrick on a remote edge.

The inclusion of Light Valley Solar site 1 (adjacent to Escrick) in this project makes no sense when the location of the other sites in this scheme are viewed on a map. The transmission distances, cabling required & disruption to the environment involved in including the Escrick site are unacceptable. Site inclusion is purely driven by the landowners willingness to take short term financial gain and there is simply no regard for the human or environmental impact of including the Escrick site in this proposed scheme by those involved. There would also be considerable long term damage in the loss of much needed agricultural land for future national independence needs by inclusion of this site. It should be a basic requirement of the applicant to actually prove their claims that this land is of poor agricultural value. We say that because we know in the community that despite the claims made in the application this land has been in the past and could be in the future, perfectly suitable for sustainable crop production.
Furthermore, insufficient weight has been given to cumulative impacts arising from similar large-scale solar proposals in the wider area, which collectively risk transforming the overall character of this part of North Yorkshire.

Escrick Parish Council therefore considers that the adverse impacts of the proposal significantly outweigh its benefits in this location and that the development, as currently proposed, fails to achieve an appropriate balance between national need and local environmental protection.