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Two MPs criticise approval of major solar farm 13 minutes ago James Grant Northamptonshire UK Parliament Stuart Andrew, the MP for Daventry, handed a petition into Downing Street against Green Hill Solar Farm Two Conservative MPs have criticised the approval of plans for one of the biggest solar farms in the country. Stuart Andrew, the MP for Daventry and Sarah Bool, the MP for South Northamptonshire, claimed Green Hill Solar Farm would take up farmland and change the countryside. The development, which was approved on Thursday, will go ahead across about 2,965 acres (1,200 hectares) of land south and west of Wellingborough, north of Northampton and parts of Buckinghamshire.
When speaking to Annabel Amos on BBC Northampton, Andrew said: "We're going to see villages in my constituency being surrounded by these huge solar farms and it will change the landscape and... we will lose good arable land." Bool said in a statement she was "incredibly disappointed" and was "taking stock" of the decision to make "versatile land" not available to arable farming. Getty Images The Green Hill Solar Farm facility is expected to span thousands of acres of land across Northamptonshire The size of the project meant that recommendations for the scheme were made by the Planning Inspectorate, rather than local planning authorities. The inspectorate's examination stage took more than five months to complete, opening in October 2025 and closing in April.
More than 1,200 people and businesses sent comments about the plans. Juliet Jarvis, from the Stop Green Hill Solar campaign group, said she was "pretty devastated" by the news. She said the panels, which she compared in size to "double decker buses", would surround Grendon and Easton Maudit and cause "disruption during construction".
"Once the solar farm is in place, it will completely change the face of Northamptonshire countryside. "We would like to see... appropriate brownfield sites covered with solar panels before we take up our best and most versatile agricultural land and risk destroying rural communities which is what we fear will happen here," Jarvis added. Labour peer Baroness Curran, the parliamentary under-secretary of state in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, said: "Solar power is crucial to delivering energy security for the country and financial security for communities, families and businesses.
"By securing more homegrown power we control, we are driving a generational opportunity to grow our economy and tackle the root cause of sky-high energy bills: our exposure to volatile global fossil fuel markets." PA Media Green Hill Solar Farm will spread across Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire Island Green Power, the company behind the scheme, "welcomed" the government's decision. Chief executive Bob Psaradellis said: "This decision again confirms that Island Green Power produces high-quality nationally significant infrastructure proposals that will benefit Britain. "The benefits will be shared with communities, through a local benefit fund, and the wider country, through the increase in secure, clean and cheap homegrown power." Renewable energy expert Rhiannon De Wreede said she "sympathised" with campaigners but added that large solar farms were "needed" alongside more rooftop panels.
Green Hill Solar said the farm would "benefit Britain with clean, secure, low-cost energy". It said the scheme could generate 500 megawatts of electricity to power about 200,000 homes. It is hoped construction will begin in 2027, with the aim of providing electricity to homes by 2029, the company said.
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Source: BBC
