Energy revolution ‘won’t come at expense of Moors landscape’

The announcement comes after a North York Moors dairy farmer had an application for a 24 metre wind turbine rejected by a planning committee meeting of the North York Moors National Park Authority (NYMNPA) last week, despite figures showing that his electricity bills were set to more than double from £18,000 to £40,000 over the next decade throwing the future of his business into jeopardy.

The Yorkshire Post revealed last month that rural communities are poised on the brink of a revolution in the way they heat their homes to combat increasing energy costs.

The number of householders investing in renewable energy such as solar panels, ground, air and water source heat pumps and domestic wind turbines has rocketed this year, with national park authorities now said to be relaxing planning rules to help residents looking to install the environmentally-friendly technologies.

While the NYMNPA says it now has the highest approval rate of any national park in Britain, with around 90 per cent of all applications for renewable energy passed, it has warned the landscape of the national park will still come first.

Chris France, director of planning at the NYMNPA, said: “Members were very sympathetic to the challenges faced by the applicant but felt that the scale of the development, which is more than twice the height of turbines usually approved by the authority, would stand out significantly in this open, undulating coastal landscape.

“Members have asked officers to work with the applicant to find a compromise solution that could potentially involve a mix of lower impact installations that would cause less harm to the landscape.

“The national park authority takes a positive approach to renewable energy development in the North York Moors and its new draft management plan acknowledges that there will need to be a greater reliance on this technology in the future.

“However, not all renewable energy schemes are suitable for a protected landscape like the North York Moors where the wide open landscapes and lack of man-made features is one of the special qualities.

“The authority will therefore resist large scale and inappropriate developments that would harm this.”

As many as 595,000 households in Yorkshire and the Humber are now projected to be living in fuel poverty, a rise from 333,000 in 2007.

Figures revealed by the Yorkshire Post last month show 26 per cent of all households in the region are suffering fuel poverty leading to more than 2,300 deaths every winter.

Experts have said the startling increase in fuel poverty – defined as the need to spend more than 10 per cent of household income on fuel to maintain adequate warmth – shows the situation is now at breaking point, amid predictions that bills will continue to rise by as much as 25 per cent by 2020.

Households across rural areas of Yorkshire are bearing the brunt of the problem, latest figures showing 27 per cent of homes in Ryedale, 24 per cent in Richmondshire, 23 per cent in Craven and 22 per cent in Hambleton are officially classed as being in fuel poverty.

Many of these homes are off the national gas network and need to rely on oil or liquid propane gas for heating, which can cost twice as much.

Last month, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority planning committee voted unanimously to allow it to install 40 photovoltaic panels on the south facing roof of its office in Bainbridge – a move which it is hoped will pave the way for many more householders to follow suit.

Many rural communities are also now creating their own oil co-operatives to buy from companies in bulk and slash costs.