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Search the Public Notice PortalCouncil leaders have condemned a Government decision to approve two huge solar farms in the County Durham countryside on appeal.
Reform UK councillors say “local democracy has been brushed aside” after the two schemes in Craghead, near Stanley, and Haswell Plough were supported by the Planning Inspectorate. Durham County Council’s planning committee had previously refused both applications.
Reacting to the news, the party in control of the administration also warned about County Durham becoming a “dumping ground” for developers.
In July 2025, the Reform-led local authority voted to scrap the council’s climate emergency pledge, which aimed to achieve Net Zero emissions by 2045 and ran alongside the current Climate Emergency Response Plan.
A previous plan to install solar panels on council-owned buildings was also removed. Reform UK argued the local authority was spending too much money on Net Zero projects, and also pledged to stop buying electric vehicles for council workers.
“Yet again, local democracy has been brushed aside under Labour’s Net Zero zealotry,” a spokesman for Reform UK said.
“County Durham cannot simply become the dumping ground for every industrial-scale energy scheme dreamed up in Whitehall. These developments cover productive countryside in glass, metal and concrete, while residents are expected to put up with the consequences.”
The influx of planning applications for solar schemes is in line with the Government’s target to generate ‘clean power’ and the regional need for new solar schemes by 2030.
Developers are continuously identifying land throughout County Durham for the development of new solar farms, but have faced opposition from Durham County Council’s planning committee, which has refused several proposals in recent years.
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Developments in Burnhope, Murton, Sheraton, and Hett have all been approved at appeal despite initial council refusals.
But councillors are not convinced.
The party spokesman added: “Reform’s position is clear: communities must have a meaningful say over what is built around them. Labour talks endlessly about devolution, then backs a planning regime that allows unelected inspectors to overrule locally elected councillors at its behest. That is not local democracy. It is Whitehall knows best, with a green badge stuck on it.”
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