Newby Hall plans solar panel scheme to generate renewable energy

Newby Hall Estate near Ripon has tabled plans for a solar panel scheme to help generate renewable energy.

In proposals submitted to North Yorkshire Council, the estate has earmarked arable land outside the historic park and gardens for the project.

It would see four rows of solar panels installed which would generate 142,145kW hours per annum.

The estate estimates that the scheme could save 28.5 tonnes of carbon emissions per year.

In documents submitted to the council, Carter Jonas, which is acting on behalf of Newby Hall, said the proposal was designed to complement the estate’s existing hydroelectric scheme in the River Ure.

It said:

“The proposed solar scheme is designed so that when the hydroelectric scheme isn’t generating as much energy in the summer, the solar panels will provide an additional renewable supply. 

“During summer, the water levels in the river typically reduced, meaning sometimes the hydro scheme does not run at all – this season is when the demand for the visitor attraction peaks and therefore the generation profile from solar will complement the hydroelectric scheme.”

North Yorkshire Council will make a decision on the plan at a later date.

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Claim North Yorkshire Council ‘not in people’s faces’ about climate change

A Green Party councillor has said North Yorkshire Council’s plan to curb climate climate change does not go far enough.

In January the council published a draft climate change strategy includes ambitions such as becoming carbon neutral by 2030, increasing walking and cycling as well as planting 37,000 hectares of new woodland by 2038.

Last month, it then launched a survey called Let’s Talk Climate that asked residents a series of questions about the strategy

However, Arnold Warneken, Green Party councillor for Ouseburn division, said the survey has garnered just over 1,000 responses, which he called disappointing.

He blamed the number of responses on a lack of promotion by the council and said it should be offering more, particularly around agriculture which is estimated to contribute one third of the county’s total emissions.

Cllr Warneken said:

“Air quality is often overlooked and as far as agriculture is concerned we’re taking no action. The council owns its own farms and there are things we can be doing. I don’t think we’re offering enough and the survey isn’t getting the responses it warrants.

“They haven’t pushed the survey hard. I like the officers but I don’t think we’re in people’s faces enough with it.”

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Cllr Warneken called on residents to fill in the survey before the deadline.

He added:

“We’ve got another two weeks where people can spend 10 minutes filling in a form that gives a real chance for county to lead the way on biodiversity and climate change and give our children and grandchildren a better quality of life.”

North Yorkshire County Council’s Conservative executive member for managing our environment, Cllr Greg White, said:

“We remain committed to tackling the threat of climate change, and we recognise that this is the biggest challenge that we face both in North Yorkshire and as a country as a whole.

“We have launched a county-wide engagement with the public to seek their views on a draft climate strategy for the new North Yorkshire Council.

“This includes the first ever public engagement specifically targeting young people, seeking the views of people aged 16 to 25 on the draft climate strategy.

“There are a host of ways for everyone to take part in the latest Let’s Talk engagement campaign about climate, including online as well as face-to-face events and support from the 42 libraries across the county.

“The engagement has also been publicised to the media, and details have been sent to staff, councillors and partner organisations to ensure that the widest possible audience is reached.

“The new council has an ambition to become carbon neutral by 2030, and we have also endorsed an ambitious bid for York and North Yorkshire to become the first carbon negative region in the country, meaning more carbon dioxide emissions would be removed from the atmosphere than are emitted.

“Work which has already been undertaken in the county to tackle carbon emissions includes the installation of energy-saving LED street lighting, energy efficient improvements to buildings and trialling the use of electric vehicles.”

You can take part in the survey on the council’s website here.

Harrogate College sets 2035 carbon neutral target

Harrogate College has pledged to become net zero by 2035.

The college, which is based on Hornbeam Park, has made the commitment as part of Luminate Education Group’s drive to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

It aims to reduce its carbon footprint by building a new campus building in Harrogate, which will include energy-efficient, electric-based heating systems.

The college has also pledged to publish annual updates on its progress towards net zero.

Danny Wild, principal at Harrogate College, said:

“Climate change and ecological destruction are some of the biggest challenges of our time and education providers, like all institutions, have a responsibility to play their part by cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

“The government’s target for the UK to reach net zero is 2050, but here at Harrogate College we’re aiming to do so much sooner.”

He added:

“Key to achieving this will be the £20m project we have lined up to replace our campus building at Harrogate. This will allow us to build a sustainable, purpose-built facility, focused on technical and vocational education, that will incorporate energy-efficient, electric-based heating systems.

“We are also recycling materials as much as possible across every single one of our courses, while looking into ways of generating our own energy and introducing a sustainable travel plan.”

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The pledge comes as the college was awarded £16 million from the government to replace its main building on Hornbeam Park.

It means the Harrogate district will get a new a purpose-built space for technical and vocational education.

The new energy-efficient building will include a workshop providing facilities aligned to industry needs. It will complement the college’s existing tech centre, which is home to its motor vehicle, electrical, joinery and welding workshops.

An existing £4 million budget will be used to pay for the demolition of the old college building.

North Yorkshire County Council issued legal warning over opposing fracking

North Yorkshire County Council has been warned its decisions over some major developments could be ruled invalid if it approves an opposition move to brand fracking as “inappropriate”.

Senior council legal officers have issued the advice to its decision-making executive ahead of it on Tuesday considering notices of motion tabled by Liberal, Liberal Democrat and Green councillors over potential fracking schemes.

The motions call for the council to agree fracking activities are inappropriate where a council has declared a climate emergency.

The Green motion says fracking would be in direct conflict with the council’s high-profile carbon reduction plan and its emerging climate change strategy.

The motions, which were tabled in November, follows City of York Council, with which North Yorkshire Council is set to form a combined authority to lead major decisions, voting unanimously that fracking “poses unacceptable risks to people, livestock, wildlife, the climate and the environment”.

In October, another neighbouring authority, East Riding of Yorkshire Council, voted to oppose fracking in its jurisdiction.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared his support for a moratorium on fracking in October and while there are no active planning applications to frack in North Yorkshire, energy companies have numerous licences to explore for oil and gas in the county.

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However, an officer’s report to the executive meeting highlights legal implications of a council stating its opposition to fracking.

It states while the council has declared a climate emergency, it has a statutory duty to consider any applications for fracking in the county and be seen to act fairly in the decision-making process.

The report adds, if approved, the motions could give the impression that the council and its members have a pre-determined view or are biased in dealing with planning applications for fracking.”

Cllr Arnold Warneken has criticised North Yorkshire County Council's draft climate change strategy.

Green Party Cllr Arnold Warneken.

The officer’s report warns planning decisions could be ruled invalid “by reason of pre-determination”.

It says: 

“A resolution of the council reflecting the terms of the proposed motion would be a public declaration of the council’s over all position on the issue of fracking.

“When members are sitting in a quasi-judicial role as they are with planning decisions, they have to be alert to how any views expressed by them individually or a collective view of the authority could impact their position.

“It is not just about being fair and impartial, but being seen to be so. The legal test when considering bias is not whether there is actual bias, but whether a fair-minded observer aware of all the facts would conclude there was a real possibility of bias.”

Green councillor Arnold Warneken, who proposed one of the motions, said if councils such as East Riding could put its opposition to fracking in place, so could North Yorkshire.

He said: 

“It could be done in general terms rather than planning terms. You could apply the pre-determination reasoning to anything, such as statements to cut carbon. This would be a policy statement rather than a planning statement.

“We want to move away from the extraction of any fossil fuels in our county. This is about making a statement about the council’s commitment to having an impact on climate change.

“The major impact the council can have on climate change is influencing third parties who we deal with. The council could say it would not support fracking because it goes against our strategy to reduce carbon.”

Government help needed to achieve carbon cutting targets, admits council

Senior North Yorkshire councillors have admitted many of the authority’s climate change goals will only be achieved if the government funds them.

Approving a public consultation over its long-awaited carbon-cutting masterplan, several executive members of North Yorkshire County Council emphasised the authority would steer clear of over-promising what it could achieve given funding and powers at its disposal.

Cllr Greg White, the authority’s climate change executive member, said six months after declaring a climate emergency the authority had formed a plan about how it would get its own emissions to net zero.

He said in addition, the North Yorkshire and York Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) had developed its own plan or roadmap for the area, featuring what he described as the “extremely ambitious” target of net zero carbon emissions by 2034 and becoming carbon negative by 2040.

He told executive members they were being asked to endorse, rather than adopt the LEP’s plan, whilst “recognising many of the actions and ambitions are actually the responsibilities of others and not in control of this council” and approve a draft carbon cutting plan for the new unitary authority.

When questioned by Liberal Democrat Cllr Steve Mason over whether the authority would pursue area-wide ambitions, Cllr White replied the authority would be reliant on residents, traders and the government for the latter.

He said the authority was set to endorse the LEP’s roadmap, but would stop short of adopting it as it could not fulfil many of the targets.

Cllr White said: 

“What we are today doing is widening what we do as a council beyond a focus on what we actually do ourselves, in terms of our vans and our buildings, to how we can help across the whole of the council and help with things like homelessness.

“However, we have to be constantly aware we can only do what we can do within the funding that we have available and the powers we have available to us. We want to take a leadership role and that is the most you can hope for.”

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Cllr Mason said the carbon-cutting plans had already taken several years to be drawn up. He added: 

“We are now three years down the line and are still talking about endorsing the plan. To be honest, we need to be taking action.”

Executive member for transport, Cllr Keane Duncan, appeared to question whether some ambitions in the LEP’s plan, such as reducing private car use by 48% and a 900% increase in cycling miles by 2030, were realistic.

He said: 

“It’s very easy for us to agree to a pledge that sounds nice on paper, but when you look at the deliverability of what’s going to be involved in making that happen in reality it becomes much more difficult.”

Cllr Duncan added the public would thank the authority for setting realistic goals.

In order to get the reductions in levels of car use, said Cllr White, there would need to be a huge injection of funds from central government.

He concluded: 

“All we can do is help people move in the right direction.”

Cllr Gareth Dadd revealed following the launch of the unitary authority “an accelerated programme of property rationalisation” would be brought forward to tackle climate change.

He said: 

“Everybody agrees with climate change until it affects them. It’s like housebuilding. Everybody agrees we need more homes until they’re next door to them.”

Ouseburn Green councillor calls for greater climate focus on agriculture

An Ouseburn councillor has said a new North Yorkshire County Council strategy to tackle carbon emissions and climate change should focus more on agriculture.

Senior councillors are expected next week to approve opening a public consultation on a draft climate change strategy.

The strategy aims to make North Yorkshire the first carbon negative region in the country, meaning more carbon dioxide emissions would be removed from the atmosphere than emitted.

The document sets out how the new North Yorkshire Council, which will launch on April 1, will develop work already underway to reduce carbon emissions.

Initiatives include producing more renewable energy, reducing the use of fossil fuels, improving insulation in homes, encouraging the use of low-emission vehicles and promoting more active travel such as cycling and walking.

However, Cllr Arnold Warneken, a Green Party member who represents Ouseburn on the council, said the strategy proposed little on how to tackle emissions from the agriculture sector.

Figures show North Yorkshire produced 5,829 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (kt co2e) in 2020, with agriculture equating to a third of the total, transport responsible for 28% and 19% coming from homes.

Cllr Warneken said:

“While the plan is claimed to be ambitious we seem unwilling to address the issue of agriculture and cite what other organisations are doing as opposed to what we propose to do, as at the moment that is nothing.

“We could at least start by looking at the farms we own and then move on to working with likes of the National Farmers Union who have their own targets and strategy which we could work with. For example being more supportive of applications for renewables on farms that wish to produce energy for their own use and that of the local communities.”

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Work already undertaken in the county to tackle carbon emissions includes the installation of energy-saving LED street lighting, energy efficient improvements to buildings and trialling the use of electric vehicles.

The route map for the region to become carbon negative by 2040 has been spearheaded by the York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership and has seen a plan drawn up to involve the public sector, businesses and communities.

Conservative Cllr Greg White, executive councillor for climate change on the council, said: 

“Climate change is without question the greatest threat that the world faces, and is already impacting on communities across the globe.

“We have seen an increasing frequency of extreme weather conditions here in North Yorkshire and across the UK as a whole, which scientists tell us is clear evidence of significant changes in our climate.

“Without clear and decisive action, the situation will only get worse. However, we are committed to ensuring that we have a comprehensive strategy in North Yorkshire, especially as we look towards the launch of the new authority this spring.”

Stray Views: Valley Gardens boating pool should remain for boats

Stray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.

Valley Gardens boating pool is for boats

May I quote from my book Souvenir Guide to the Valley Gardens in relation to Fountain v Model Yachts.

The Valley Gardens grew from an ancient footpath that linked the Old Sulphur Well beneath the Royal Pump Room with the mineral wells on Bogs Field. During the nineteenth century, the walk was embellished with planting. At this time, there were paths either side of the stream which incorporated ponds, fountains and a rock garden.

The boating pool was built as a children’s paddling pool in 1925. Over time its use changed from a children’s paddling pool to the Boating Pool.

The boating pool should be left for boats and the Fountain should be where it used to be in the stream not far from the Magnesia Well where it was much admired.

Anne Smith, Harrogate

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Government should take climate crisis seriously with flexible planning laws

I confess to being disappointed with the performance of the government of late – a fiasco on many levels, I’d say. I would not have been able to continue to keep my reputation and run a business for the twenty years I did had I acted in the manner of our representatives.

However, putting that aside, I want to do something – for myself – to mitigate the risks associated with the current crises of climate change, energy pricing and the cost of living but seem to be being blocked at every turn.

You see, I’m lucky enough to live in a conservation area – not that it had that designation when I bought the property over thirty years ago. In addition, in the late 1990’s, I bought a derelict barn at the bottom of my garden that was originally part of a farm. The developer building houses on the site of the farm was intending to demolish the barn (which is over 100 years old) and build a garage for the new builds, three expensive new properties. 

To cut a long story short, we purchased the barn, repaired the walls and roof, then made it into habitable accommodation and connected it to our bungalow for my mother-in-law to move into as she had some health issues, made worse by the loss of her husband. This work was completed in 2000.

For energy efficiency reasons, I’d like to fit good quality uPVC doors & windows (which are almost indistinguishable from wood) in the barn and have applied twice to change the original planning permission which stipulated wood was to be used – the last time going to appeal. Permission was refused. The bungalow attached to the barn already has uPVC windows, as do many other properties in the conservation area, and the barn windows are not visible from the road.

What I am asking is that our governments decides what they want to do. We can live in a pretty country with quaint houses we can’t afford to heat – generating higher levels of CO2 – and be unable to do anything about it or we can take the crises we face seriously and allow some flexibility in the planning process – face the problems head-on.

The front of my house faces south and I’d be willing to install, at my cost, solar panels and an energy storage system but, this requires planning permission with the associated cost and hassle; some applications have been refused because it spoils the look of the village – which has to be nonsense in light of the current crises.

I’d like our governments to decide what they want. The energy crisis is fundamentally of our own making –  don’t tell me it is a world problem, out of our hands; nonsense – it isn’t. We should never have done the dash-for-gas – generating electricity from gas; had we refrained, we’d still be self-sufficient in natural gas. This isn’t hindsight; as a Fellow of the IET, I have given numerous talks on climate change – warning of the dangers for decades – and I am on record as saying that we should not be generating electricity with gas. The reasoning, gas can be delivered to the home for burning at 90% efficiency. This drops to 30 or 40% (at best) if it is delivered as electricity. If I’m generous I’d say we have wasted 60% of the gas we used in electricity generation.

We’ve screwed up, and the current Conservatives must take some of the blame – they’ve been in power for long enough. What we need is vision; the government isn’t leading but has been forced to act by the (inevitable) rise of the evil empire and its invasion of Ukraine. What it has done is too little and too late. We all need to rise to the challenge. We can achieve more but what is currently being done is green-washing and simply not enough. Governments local and national must remove the roadblocks and let us be accountable for solving the problem ourselves. Give me the chance.

Paul Smith, Staveley

Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.

Calls for council to go ‘further and faster’ on climate change in North Yorkshire

North Yorkshire County Council has faced pressure from opposition councillors to reconsider how its environmental actions are managed before postponing a decision on whether fracking is appropriate in the area.

A full meeting of the authority saw a North Yorkshire Climate Coalition, which includes 18 environmental groups, calling on the authority to move “further and faster” over environmental issues, and drop party politics to introduce measures more rapidly.

The coalition pressed the council – which declared a climate emergency in the summer – to address the twin climate and ecological emergencies and to harness “huge economic opportunities” during a transition to a cleaner, greener economy.

The meeting was told that the authority’s leader, Councillor Carl Les, had this week called for people to support the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Change Commission move to declare an ecological emergency, before his Conservative group voted to stop the creation of a biodiversity crisis working group at the council.

Councillor Greg White, executive member for climate change and customer engagement, said the authority did not want to be judged on what it said, but rather its actions, and that its plan for cutting carbon was “bold”.

Coun White added while the council was working to introduce carbon-cutting measures it also needed to focus on its main purpose, which was to provide much-needed services.

Nevertheless, opposition councillors insisted more action and a greater focus was needed.

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The administration then faced numerous questions from opposition members over its environmental actions, ranging from public transport to buying zero carbon electricity, and from installing air source heat pumps to offloading pension fund investments in fossil fuels.

Conservative members said the authority put environmental considerations at the heart of its existing system, which was be best placed to guide the council over cutting carbon and accused opposition members of “grandstanding”.

The meeting also saw opposition councillors prevented from debating proposals to brand fracking in a county which has declared a climate emergency as inappropriate, so the authority’s executive could consider them first and report its conclusions at the next full council meeting in February.

Labour, Liberal Democrat, Independent and Green group leaders lined up to back proposals designed to create greater oversight of the authority’s climate change actions, with some claiming the Conservatives were “resisting transparency”.

Green group leader Councillor Andy Brown accused the administration of “downplaying the order of the problem” and said they needed to develop “a clear, costed action plan”.

He said:

“We have had floods destroying a bridge at Tadcaster, we’ve had Richmondshire experiencing floods, we’ve had more fires every summer virtually, we got close to 40 degrees in the summer in Yorkshire, we’ve had 20 degrees in February and in November in North Yorkshire. We are on track for the warmest year ever.”

Ahead of Conservative councillors voting down two climate change proposals, they highlighted that while funding was the biggest determinant of potential climate change action, from April the county’s new unitary authority was facing a black hole of up to £70m.

Harrogate district schools set to take part in Walk to School Day 2022

Local environmental group, Zero Carbon Harrogate, is set to hold its annual Walk to School Day for 2022.

The event will be held on Friday (October 7) with a focus on “building good transport habits”.

A further five walk to school days will be held in November, February, March, May and June.

This year, Zero Carbon Harrogate has changed the format of the walk to focus on taking part and building good transport habits, rather than calculating winners.

A spokesperson for the group said:

“This year, our strategy is slightly different. Instead of calculating winners and announcing our leaderboard, the event simply focuses on taking part, building good transport habits – ideally on a daily basis – and spreading the word.

“At the end of the 2022-2023 school year, we will present gold, silver and bronze certificate awards to all participating schools in the area, depending on the number of events they took part in over the academic year.”

The 28 schools taking part in the event on Friday are:

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Extinction Rebellion to bring bus to Harrogate district tomorrow

Climate activists from Extinction Rebellion (XR) will drive a bus to Pateley Bridge and Harrogate tomorrow to talk to people about climate change.

But although the bus has solar panels on its roof, the bus is not electric and is powered by diesel.

A fleet of multicoloured buses have been travelling the country as part of XR’s Change Is Now tour.

The idea is to visit different XR groups and have conversations with local people about their climate change hopes and fears.

Tomorrow morning, the bus will be in Pateley Bridge to promote a film called 2040, which is showing at Summerbridge Methodist Chapel from 6.30pm that evening. Entry is free.

They will then park up in Harrogate and head to Cambridge Street between 12pm and 4pm to talk to people and canvas views.

A petition calling on the government to take firmer action on climate change will be available to sign.

People can also bring along plain t-shirts or fabrics to get them block-printed with XR graphics.

James Smith, from XR Harrogate, said:

“People really want to talk about climate change.

“When they talk, it becomes more real to people and they then might take action.”

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Mr Smith said he was expecting some criticism about XR using a diesel bus rather than an electric one.

He added:

“Even a group of totally committed green activists have to use a diesel bus, there are no viable, affordable electric buses.

“But this is the point — no matter how green you are you can’t always take the eco, fossil fuel free option that you’d like. We’re calling on the government to plan and fund a zero-carbon economy. “

Extinction Rebellion’s visit will also coincide with the Green Party’s national conference, which is taking place from Friday until Sunday at Harrogate Convention Centre.