CampaignPack

with thanks to all who worked so hard to make our campaign successful

based on

Experiences of Objecting to a

Solar Farm PlanningApplication

SHSF’S

With thanks to all of those who worked relentlessly on the Stop

Hoscar Solar Farm campaign and kindly allowed us to use

their accumulated knowledge in this document

TipRecognise that there is a political and planning aspect to your campaign;you will have to win both to succeed

The Beginning

We realize that you will have found yourselves in the position of having to defend your local area against the siting of a solar farm out of the blue and will need to act very quickly in order to fight the planning application. Whilst daunting, it is possible to make a big difference in a short while, but residents have to work together and use everyone’s skill sets in order to make headway. The very first job is to let all of the local residents know about the application, as the companies who make these applications rely on a lack of generally available information about the proposal in order to get an easy permission with no local opposition. Your first steps will be to;

Create a web site and build awareness;

• Basic will do - it is a means of people in your area finding you and each other and also finding out more about what is happening. Outline the proposal, give contact details and create a separate email response address so that everyone can communicate but most importantly the campaign group will look organised and official. We used wordpress to do this - basic wordpress sites are free but for a small cost more professional options and crucially a customisable website address are available https://en-gb.wordpress.org/.

• Build awareness of the proposed development to as many residents and surrounding villages as possible- posters in windows, houses, gardens, shops etc and include a web site address or email address or phone number on each poster or hand out so that people can inquire further.

• Draft a single page fact sheet outlining the proposal and add contact details. Distribute to as many nearby residents as you can. Many people, in the the early days, have no information at all.

• Phone or email your parish council/s. They should have been informed by your Borough Council of the application so may assist in the campaign.

Hold your first residents meeting;

• Ensure the meeting is open and welcoming but check those who attend are not from the developer or landowner!

• Prepare an attendance slip so all present must give a name, address, email, phone number and list any skills or offers of help. Ensure they hand in the slip on leaving. Man the exits!

• At the meeting ask for people to volunteer skills and assistance: you will need IT, web design, document writing, project management, graphic design, photography, PR and marketing etc.

• Encourage people to step forward as many will think the group is up and running and may not think you need help.

• Ask for donations as running a campaign is expensive, especially if you need expert reports/advice, printing etc

• Set up a community bank account with full transparency.

Form a Team;

• Form a small action group who will commit to meeting regularly and who can work to deadlines to ensure all actions are completed . Meeting once a week is advisable.

• Operate all meetings professionally with agendas, minutes and actions. This keeps you focused and ensures everyone keeps the momentum going.

• Give the campaign group an identity by providing its own email address, website and Facebook sites. This gives a feeling of size and scale to your campaign.

• Use Social media to generate further interest, keep your supporters updated and engage with everyone. It helps to add national and international news items as well as those directly relating to the campaign. You must keep the sites updated!

• Create links from your web site to all social media sites you set up

• Compile an email database of supporters - keep it regularly updated and actively seek to increase it. This database is important. Use it for newsletters and for rallying people to photos shoots, the planning meeting and for asking for help or donations ! do consider data protection issues with your database and bear in mind it would be of value to the opposition, so, IT security must be taken seriously by utilizing password protection, not sending mass emails etc

The Beginning

The Official Objection Letters

• This is one of the most most important tasks of the campaign

• Every member of every household must write in so that every letter rather than every household is counted. Larger numbers of objections are key here.

• Suggest ideas if people are unsure how to object - an easy link to your local council’s objections page for the application is ideal

• Provide template letters on your website to help those who are unsure

• Tell residents what not to say as well as what is helpful, so for example a fall in the local housing price will not sway a decision, whereas destruction of local wildlife habitat may.

• Continue to remind people periodically via your website, newsletter, facebook to make their objections. Start now and remind them regularly until the day of the meeting.

• Ignore deadline dates as these will often get pushed on as the council awaits new information it has requested - keep objecting until committee day.

The Petition

• Consider a petition via your website ( try 38 degrees to organise ) or through your Council or via local organisations .

• Not all petitions count as significantly as individual objections so do check with your Authority.

Encourage community involvement at an early stage and particularly when a formal application has been made. Continue to remind supporters of the need to object and offer help by showing relevant grounds for objections on your web sites or on leaflets.

TipThe written objection is one of the most important tasks of your campaign.

The Official Objections

Politics

Political Support

• It really helps to obtain the support of your MP. Write to him/her asking for support and get permission to use his/her support letter or comments in your press campaign or get in touch with their press office and ask if they will issue a joint press release with you.

• Examine the political balance in your local Council and approach the councillor responsible for the ward in which the development is proposed.

• Try to obtain backing or advice from councillors from each party but be aware that councillors are officially unable to be let you know their voting preference, in advance, as this could veto their vote at committee or ability to speak at the meeting. It does not preclude their ability to offer assistance.

• Do your research on previous renewable energy proposals in your area and ascertain recommendations, reasons for approval or refusal and which councillors are likely to be on your side and which against.

• In all communications to councillors, stress the campaign group’s support for solar and renewable energy and then explain briefly why this is proposal should be refused e.g. wrong location, inappropriate use of green belt, agricultural land or whatever is most critical in your own situation.

• Make reference to government guidelines, policy or recent comments from ministers with regard to solar developments and renewable energy developments. Be vigilant and keep abreast of developments by reading the press for articles which will be relevant and current. For example, there is a lot of documentation and official policy regarding the use of roof space on industrial sites and previously used land or brownfield land instead of agricultural land.

• See bibliography below for some useful guidelines - use in your documents to prove your objections!

• You will need to attempt to influence your local councillors. Apart from the ward councillors, it is best to wait until nearer the date of the Committee Meeting before trying too hard with the main Council and more importantly your Planning Committee. Too soon and they will forget the details! It can take several months before your application reaches committee and they will have to read hundreds of applications before yours.

TipTake time to understand the political issues and balances within your local council

Your objective is to influence the Planning Officers and the Councillors to refuse this application. If the local authority officers recommend refusal, you will have a strong likelihood that the elected councillors will follow suit. An officer’s recommendation for refusal also significantly reduces the likelihood of an appeal. Important tasks pre planning meeting are;

• Contact the Planning Officer assigned to deal with the application. Ask for his/her assistance in understanding the process. Keep in touch and use the officer for help and advice. Building a relationship with the officer is very useful. It’s also very nice and polite to say ‘thank you’ when (fingers crossed) you win your fight.

• Study the applicant’s submitted application and all supporting documentation.

• Become familiar with the NPPF ( National Planning Policy Framework) and your local authority ’s Local Plan.

• Check and re-check to see if the applicant has omitted to cover any areas which are necessary for planning permission?

• Check if a full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) been submitted.

Whether this is an EIA or a non EIA application, you will need to challenge the applicant on the following areas:

1. Green Belt - Development is not permitted unless ‘very special circumstances’ have been demonstrated by the applicant. These circumstances are very specific in the NPPF so do challenge any statements where applicable.

2. Agriculture- have they looked at other sites or only this one agricultural site?

3. Heritage - the setting of listed buildings must be protected

4. Ecology- habitats of wildlife, certain species, flora, fauna , SSI s, RAMSAR sites, must be protected

5. Landscape and Visual Amenity- detrimental effect or loss of amenity to residents or visitors?

6. Be aware of information on Highways, Environment Agency, Natural England etc and use local knowledge to challenge the submission and responses

The above categories are all covered in any application for developments of this nature. The developer must address the requirements as set out in the NPPF and the local Plan for each category. You will need to read and challenge each statement made by the developer . Amazingly, their assessments will nearly always prove that their development will have no impact on views, enjoyment of the area, habitats for wildlife or the settings of listed buildings etc!

Your task is to show that it will have a large impact and prove it!

TipThese 6 areas are vital in your fight against planning approval. Concentrate on them throughout.

Planning

Preparing objections is best dealt with as a team. We suggest allocating categories to individuals to write each one but the entire group can be involved, if required, in researching the individual areas detailed in the last section on Planning.

• Research and prepare an objection for each category as listed above or for each category submitted by the application if different in your application.

• Use references, quotes and talk to organisations to add weight to your objection and challenges

• Add photos - e.g. include new viewpoints not included in the application’s submission or graphically adapt a view to incorporate the proposed site.

• Provide facts, figures and scientific detail but be aware that planners do not officially make decisions on anything other than planning matters.

• Most councils have transparent planning portals where all your documents will be displayed.

• Additional, non planning information will, therefore, be available to be read by anyone and this may include councillors! Information on finance, energy performance may be good influential background even if not officially considered relevant as planning criteria!

You cannot, effectively, submit detailed objections until the applicant’s official application has been submitted, as you don’t actually know what you are challenging! So time scales will be tight. Concerntrate on the following

• Preparing objections is best dealt with as a a team. We suggest allocating categories to individuals to write each one but the entire group can be involved, if required, in research.

• You may also feel you need expert help. Identify if you need expert help early on as experts are hard to find and are not always available. Experts can provide high quality reports quickly but cost money. Have you got the funds to support this approach? Someone may need to underwrite expenditure until funds are raised!

• Your objections are your key documents. They will be read by the Planning Officers and will be on the panning portal. Well presented objections can be influential. This is detailed and difficult work so you will be on a steep learning curve.

• These documents will be available to be read by councillors so be as informative, passionate and persuasive as you can.

• Provide links to these documents on your web site

• Provide links to your objection documents in your letters to Councillors

• Submit the action group’s planning objections under your campaign name to create weight and momentum to your campaign. This also makes your objections easily located and gives the campaign group a sense of significance and a force with which to be reckoned!

Organise your Objections

The Planning Committee date has probably been postponed several times to allow for returned responses etc. However when you are advised that it is definitely going to committee, you need to spring into action!

1. Make sure you have submitted your action group’s formal objections

2. Check through all responses from consultees, both official and unofficial

3. Ensure you are aware of anything outstanding from official agencies

4. Respond to any supplementary information submitted if required

5. Write to non-official organisations- eg RSPB, Wild life Trusts, Countryside specialists if you feel the applicant has not addressed habitats , species , wildlife particular to your area and ask them to write to your Authority if they have any concerns.

6. Encourage your supporters to keep submitting objections

7. Step up awareness - poster campaign, leaflet house to house, newsletters, emails to supporters with the date for decision

8. Step up Press Campaign- aim for coverage every week until committee date.

9. Use photos, graphics and comments from MPs, objections or concerns by organisations to form a series of Press Releases

ALSO.......

Make sure the Action Group meet regularly and stay in daily email contact to ensure nothing is missed and that responses and actions can be immediate if required.

Watch out for posters being taken down, leaflets being removed from shops, petitions in support being started, letters of support being submitted. Rise above any aggravation. Do not respond emotionally to comments made on the planning site . Stay focused and professional and if responses are required, ensure they are factual and devoid of anything personal. Keep the moral high ground and keep the respect of planning officers, councillors, MPs and Press that you will, by now, have gained.

TipKeep your cool throughout. An over-emotional action can cause untold problems

Receiving yourCommittee Meeting Date

Finally in the last two weeks before the committee meeting, begin your email campaign to the local authority councillors.

1. First email…to the full Council . Introduce the Campaign Group- (why formed and comprised of people from which areas).Give a summary of your objections, with links to your full objections as submitted and on the planning portal. Do not provide reams of information. They won’t read it. Keep it brief and outline your most important objections. Be passionate but not personal

2. Second email…to the planning members or those on your appropriate Committee . Give a further summary of your objections and go into detail on your most important concern. Be mindful that you must keep to planning matters but if this is the strongest reason for refusal, stress the importance in detail! Add photographs to show the impact of the development on the location.

3. You may wish to send more emails on specific areas of objection. The rule of thumb is to keep these emails brief and to the point. You can add links to more detailed documents.

Email all your supporters and make sure as many as possible attend the meeting . A show of strength is vital .We printed badges and these were very effective. To have 60 people packed into the committee meeting, all wearing our badges made quite a statement!

reviewIs there anything you still need to chase up ? Maybe someone hasn’t answered your email or phone call? Now is your last chance to pull out all of the stops.

The Final Push

Our campaign was won with a unanimous rejection of the proposal by the elected members of the Plan-ning Committee . They refused planning permission on four grounds after being directed by the Planning Officers to refuse the application.

At the beginning of the pre planning process, letters from the Officers to the applicant appeared to offer no real objections and during the screening opinion process, the acreage for the solar panels increased significantly. There is no doubt in our mind that our campaign changed opinions and won over political influence in our favour. It was this combination of providing sound planning objections and winning local political influence to our side that gave us such a clear winning margin. It is also true that recent changes in government guidance and political comment by ministers at national level has helped to tilt back the previously heavy bias towards granting permission on agricultural Greenbelt for solar projects.

However, to win still requires a lot of hard work and commitment.

Summary

1The applicant has 6

months in which to ap-peal to the secretary of

State

3If the applicant does

resubmit the same plan the application needs to address the reasons for

refusal

2The applicant has 12

months to resubmit an alternative plan for the

same site with no fees to pay

And What Next?If the application is refused- well done., but what can you expect now?

• Letter to Planning Officers - Minister of State DECC April 2014

• https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/305460/140422_

• Solar_PV_Strategy_LA_letter.pdf

• Letter to Planning Officers - Minister of State, DECC Nov 2013

• https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/255051/

• Letter_from_Greg_Barker_to_LAs.pdf

• DECC UK SOLAR PV STRATEGY PART 2

• https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/302049/uk

• solar_pv_strategy_part_2.pdf

• CPRE- Notes on Solar Energy

• http://www.cpre.org.uk/resources/energy-and-waste/climate-change-and-energy/item/3707-

• policyguidance-note-solar-energy

• CPRE Policy guidance note solar energy August 2014

• http://www.cpreoxon.org.uk/news/item/2248-solar-farms

• Solar Trade 10 Commitments

• http://www.solar-trade.org.uk/media/STA%2010%20commitments%20v%2010.pdf

References

Many thanks to those who contributed the photos for this pack under the creative commons licence and also members of SHSF who photography was invaluable. For those of you who wish to reproduce text from this brochure, please feel free to do so, but please do credit us when you do. Thank you

FactIt’s so nice to be able to

complete this packwith a beautiful autumn view

of the land we saved fromthe solar farm developers.

website: http://stophoscarsolarfarm.com/

facebook page: facebook.com/StopHoscarSolarFarm

twitter: twitter.com/stophoscarsf

For further info:We’d be delighted if you want to get in touch withus and we’ll do all we can to help and support your campaign, including passing on sample objection letters etc. Drop us a line below: