Council’s powers are restricted by legislation

THE author of last week’s letter “Solar farm idea is failing to shine” does seem to have a rather distorted idea both of the property ownership of the Derbyshire Dales District Council and of their power as a planning authority.

The district council has already used most of the suitable roof areas on their own property to mount solar PV (eg Matlock Town Hall, Ashbourne Leisure Centre) with more installations planned.

The property ownership of the county council is much more extensive, but it is unfair to blame the district council for issues that it has no control over.

The district council would also love to be able to insist that all new-build properties have solar PV, but without suitable legislation from central government this would be hard to enforce.

Where the district council are more directly involved in a housing development, eg in the homes about to be built at the old Dove Garage site on Mayfield Road, solar panels and heat pumps can be specified.

However, when the decision is left to the developer – eg in the 469 homes planned for phase one of the development at Ashbourne Airfield – these things may not always be fitted.

In the current application for this site, only about a quarter seem destined to have solar PV and none will have heat pumps – only gas central heating.

The district council can advise the developer, but not demand.

Our only hope is to try to persuade developers to embrace the implications of climate change and “do the right thing” whilst we wait for legislation to catch up with the impact of global warming.