Stop Your Greenbelt From Being Destroyed - Application Submitted 

Planning Policy Background

 

National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)

• Green Belt land is protected from inappropriate development.

• Renewable-energy projects can be approved only where “Very Special Circumstances” (VSC) clearly outweigh the harm to openness and visual character.

• Development must conserve and enhance heritage assets and their settings.

 

Erewash Local Plan and Derbyshire Policies

• Protect local landscape character, heritage settings and countryside amenity.

• Safeguard Public Rights of Way.

• Encourage renewable energy, but only in locations where environmental harm is minimised.

 

Residents argue that this proposal conflicts with Green Belt and local-plan policy, as the scheme industrialises a valued rural landscape for four decades.

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What the Application Documents Say

 

Environmental Statement (Volumes I–III)

• Confirms the need for a full Environmental Impact Assessment.

• Assesses effects on landscape, heritage, biodiversity, traffic, and noise.

• Accepts moderate early visual change from nearby footpaths; long-term effects remain “minor to moderate.”

• Describes the site as entirely within the Green Belt.

 

Planning, Design & Access Statement (PDAS)

• Acknowledges the Green Belt constraint but argues VSC: national need for renewable energy, biodiversity net gain, and the scheme’s “reversibility.”

 

Heritage & Archaeology Reports

• Identify proximity to Dale Abbey Conservation Area, the Hermitage Scheduled Monument and Boyah Grange Farmhouse (Grade II).

• Assess harm as “less than substantial,” which residents consider an underestimate given the open visual connection.

 

Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment (LVIA)

• Photomontages show fences and panels clearly visible from local rights of way and ridge paths for many years before screening matures.

 

Traffic & Construction Plans

• Construction estimated at ≈ 40 weeks, with HGVs using Potato Pit Lane → No Man’s Lane → M1 J25.

• “4–5 HGV deliveries per week at peak,” though residents fear underestimation of disruption.

 

Noise Assessment

• Predicts inverter noise below background levels at nearest dwellings but acknowledges tonal components; residents highlight the quiet rural baseline.

 

Biodiversity Net Gain Report

• Claims +44.8 % habitat, +29 % hedgerow, +22 % watercourse gain—dependent on decades of maintenance.

 

Statement of Community Involvement (SCI)

• Records a public exhibition (26 Feb 2025) with many attendees raising concerns about visual impact, traffic, and heritage.

 

Main Resident Objections

1. Green Belt harm – loss of openness and introduction of industrial features across 49 ha of countryside for 40 years.

2. Landscape impact – fencing and panels visible from footpaths and viewpoints for years; tranquillity and rural character lost.

3. Heritage setting – development immediately beside Dale Abbey Conservation Area and the Hermitage Scheduled Monument.

4. Public Rights of Way – footpaths re-routed into narrow fenced corridors instead of open fields.

5. Traffic and noise – heavy vehicles on narrow lanes for months and ongoing maintenance activity afterwards.

6. Biodiversity uncertainty – claimed “net gain” depends on management success over decades; ecological disturbance inevitable during construction.

7. Scale and duration – “temporary” 40-year use effectively permanent for a generation.​

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Community Position

 

The Dale Abbey area is already valued for its peace, open farmland and heritage landscape.
While residents support renewable energy, they believe this proposal is the wrong scale in the wrong place.

 

Key points of the residents’ position

• Industrial-scale development within the Green Belt contradicts national and local policy.

• Visual and heritage harm would persist for decades.

• Safer, less sensitive locations and roof-based generation should be prioritised.

• Local voices from the February 2025 consultation have not been addressed.

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What Happens Next

 

The application will be determined by Erewash Borough Council, consulting Derbyshire County Council on highways and heritage.
Residents can submit comments referencing:

• Green Belt policy (NPPF §149–150);

• Heritage impact (NPPF §199–202);

• Erewash Local Plan policies on landscape and amenity; and

• The arguments summarised above.

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In summary:
 

The documents show a large, 40-year solar farm in protected Green Belt countryside immediately beside Dale Abbey’s heritage landscape. Residents believe that, while renewable energy is important, this proposal causes lasting harm to openness, views, heritage and local amenity, and therefore fails the planning balance set by national and local policy.