Stephenson Halliday has recently provided planning and community consultation services for a large scale solar proposal close to the village of Morland, near Penrith in Cumbria. The site is located in a rural area of Cumbria, close to a number of other solar proposals.
The timescales involved with the project were extremely tight given the recent announcements to cut financial incentives to solar projects of this scale.
We co-ordinated the planning submission for the proposal which included the review of a number of specialist environmental assessments, provision of an environmental report and supporting planning statement.
The planning submission was informed by a programme of community consultation which involved organisation and attendance of a Public Consultation Event and engagement with the local community and parish councils. We provided a report of the consultation process and the key outcomes of this as part of the planning submission.
The application was determined in December 2015. Although the planning officer had recommended the scheme for approval, the Eden DC planning committee chose to refuse the application against this recommendation. The applicant is currently considering its options with regards to an appeal.
