Solar revolution stymied by bureaucracy 20 April 06

My correspondent Richard Barnett writes in from the New Forest, southern England, with a rather salutary experience. Here it is, in his words.

“When we moved to our present house in December 2001 it was an environmental disaster. It had no insulation to speak of, single glazed leaded light windows and an ancient boiler. We knew what we had taken on and set about updating and upgrading it to an acceptable standard with loft/cavity wall insulation, double glazing, new boiler and energy efficient equipment (white goods and light bulbs). It is a substantial house and we were determined to limit our carbon footprint as much as possible.

In the summer of 2003 we decided to look into a solar powered hot water system. We found one that looked good and I telephoned the local planning department (New Forest District Council) to see what the planning situation was. I could tell that they had not received many such enquiries but I was confidently assured that as the panel would be flush with the roof I would not need any permission and I could go ahead. The system was commissioned on 1 September 2003 with the aid of a grant from the government.

In November 2005 I made enquiries about a photovoltaic system for generating electricity. We have a rather ugly large garage at the back of the house on a side road and its flat roof seemed a perfect place (facing south) to site enough panels to give us nearly all the electricity we use. I contacted a firm based in Portsmouth who gave me a quote and arranged for a grant application from the government. They assured me there would be no problem with planning. The grant was confirmed and the system installed on 9 March 2006.

A few days after this I received a letter from the New Forest DC Planning Department saying that I had breached planning regulations on both installations. Not only that, but due to “the planning policies which apply to this area” any retrospective application was likely to be refused. I was asked to send a letter saying whether I was prepared to remove the panels.

The approach was entirely negative and unnecessarily aggressive. There was no offer to discuss how the installations might be made acceptable, no explanation as to why they were unlikely to gain planning consent and certainly no recognition of the environmental value of what we had done.

I requested a site meeting with the enforcement officer and this occurred on 29 March 2006. At the meeting the officer told me that one of the problems with this type of development was that it was not specifically covered by planning regulations. So, in his opinion the problem with the solar water heating panel was that it was “too big”. I asked him what the acceptable size would be and he said there wasn’t a statutory size. When I asked him how much smaller he thought it should be he said “a bit”!

As far as the PV system was concerned he said the problem was the visual impact it had. The system is on the garage in a side road overlooked only by one house (a rest home incidentally) and the panels are 80cm high. The installers offered to reduce the height to 40cm and box in the panels so that they cannot be seen from the road or neighbouring gardens. The officer was very reluctant to offer his opinion on this. It seems he really just wanted to see the panels removed for some reason.

We have invested in this technology in response to countless reports about climate change and the need for everyone to ‘do their bit’. It is not an investment that we expected a financial return from but rather one that would be the responsible thing to do for future generations. The PV system is working very well and is so far nearly meeting our electricity needs. Since its installation it has saved over 100kg of Co2 from going into the atmosphere.

On 28 March 2006 the government report on climate change recognised the need to individual householders to do what they can to limit carbon emissions including investing in solar technology. I understand some £80m has been set aside to encourage, amongst other things, microgeneration schemes. And there were calls in the media for a change of mindset over global warming with a new political consensus about how to tackle it.

I am deeply depressed and angry with my experience so far. The reaction of the planning authority has been to treat us as if we were carrying out some criminal or dangerous act. I am going to submit a planning application once the remedial work has been carried out on the pv panels but am fearing the worst as the enforcement officer has clearly made up his mind that the development should go.

What confusion and mixed messages! The government is encouraging such developments and is prepared to give quite generous grants for them but it seems that in local authorities (at least in mine) they are working in the opposite direction. This seems shameful and needs tackling. And if other people are to be encouraged to embrace solar technology to help live a low carbon lifestyle then the whole system has got to be made more ‘joined up’ and positive.”

But the story might yet have a happy ending. A few days later Richard reported: “BBC South covered the story in a two minute piece last Thursday. Then the next day I met with the installers and a Senior Enforcement Officer from the new New Forest National Park Authority. She was very positive and agreed that there was no point in even talking about the panel that had been up for over two years. She agreed with our plans to lower the angle of the PV panels and to box them in on the road side.

Actually what she said was that it was a very useful catalyst case. The Park Authority is having to develop its policies quickly in the area of solar energy and it had served to highlight the issue. The installers offered to give a presentation to the planning dept and this will probably go ahead.”

So the lesson is: never give up. And fighting these battles also makes it easier for everyone else. Venceremos!