Solar farm the size of 120 football pitches could be constructed in Scarborough if plans submitted

A planning application could be submitted for the construction of a solar farm – the size of more than 120 football pitches – in Brompton near Scarborough.

The DWD Property and Planning consultancy has sought advice from North Yorkshire Council regarding a potential application for a major, 89-hectare solar farm in Brompton.

An environmental impact assessment for the proposed solar farm, on land at Carr House Farm, Brompton Ings Road, states that it would be 220 acres or larger in size than 120 football pitches.

It appears that a formal planning application has not yet been submitted for the proposed 23 MegaWatt site, which would include battery storage and other associated infrastructure.

According to the council: “The development is expected to last 40 years with a six-month construction period.”

The local planning authority’s environmental impact assessment states that the proposed development would lead to “effects on a number of aspects of the environment”.

However, it also states that due to the nature of solar developments which have “no noise, smells, emissions, very limited human activity, no waste, and no traffic, some individual effects may not be significant”.

It also states that other individual impacts are “more likely including loss of agricultural land, some visual impacts, and flood risk issues” but the authority said that these could be assessed when a planning application was submitted.

According to planning officers, the proposal is not within a sensitive area and there are “no designations, heritage assets, or other resources that would be affected”.

They also noted that despite the large size of the proposed solar farm its impacts would be localised.

However, whilst the planning authority informed DWD that “any application need not be accompanied by an Environmental Statement”, the impact assessment does note that the site “actually includes some ‘very good’ agricultural land”.

The impact assessment report states: “Whilst this land would not be available for intensive agricultural use, the applicant states that the resource would not be permanently lost and some agricultural activity could occur through grazing.”

The report notes that the scheme “did formally split Ryedale and Scarborough geographical areas” but following April’s local government reorganisation, planning decisions are made by the county-wide authority North Yorkshire Council.