Northamptonshire Stop Green Hill Solar campaign highlighted at Walk to Defend the Countryside event

Northamptonshire residents and Stop Green Hill Solar supporters joined more than 25 similar groups across the UK in the day of national and local protest.

The groups have come together against massive solar farm developments on farmland and countryside – including one the size of Heathrow airport in Northants.

Concerned residents met in Easton Maudit, joining with South Northamptonshire MP Sarah Bool (Con), new Leader of North Northamptonshire Council Martin Griffiths (Reform) and campaign group Stop Green Hill Solar, to walk footpaths and bridleways across landscapes threatened by the massive industrial solar installation.

Cllr Griffiths said: “I’m opposed to the sheer scale of the Green Hill Solar development and the effect it would have on Easton Maudit and Grendon that will house the Battery Electric Storage System. It’s right next to the River Nene, a special scientific interest location. The other village I feel for is Mears Ashby – it will be almost surrounded.”

Juliet Jarvis of Stop Green Hill Solar said: “We all want renewable energies, but in the right locations. North and West Northants are two of the UK’s top areas for warehouse and logistics buildings with more being built, which could accommodate solar on their rooftops.

"We need national and local government to strategically plan for renewable energy, rather than leaving it in the hands of opportune developers and landowners.”

The gathering was part of the National Walk to Defend the Countryside, that saw campaigners in England, Scotland and Wales walking simultaneously on lands at risk from developers of giant NSIP (Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project) solar farms.

Proposed plans for Green Hill Solar in Northamptonshire would cover 2,965 acres – equivalent to 1,869 football pitches backed by developer Island Green Power, now wholly owned by Macquarie Asset Management.

Villages and communities across a large section of Northamptonshire will feel the effects of the solar farm with 14 miles of underground cabling connecting nine solar sites to substations and battery storage facility in Grendon – designed to generate power for up to 115,000 homes.

Supporters heard Easton Maudit village, from where the walk started, will be surrounded on three sides by more than 700 acres of giant solar panels and associated substations and development.

Mears Ashby will be bordered by around 1,000 acres of solar development.

Grendon would be home to a 500 MW Battery Electric Storage System (BESS), which will be among the largest in the UK.

MP Sarah Bool raised the issue of the BESS in Parliament debate last week.

She said: “I called for a pause in the permission of these developments until we have a proper statutory framework that will make them safe - we need coordination with local fire services during the planning process, specification of minimum distances of BESS from residential buildings, elevation in flood-prone areas and training for the fire departments and first responders to give them the expertise they need as a minimum.”

The Green Hill Solar Development Consent Order (DCO) was submitted to the Planning Inspectorate at the end of May 2025. If accepted the examination period is expected to last around nine months, with the Planning Inspectorate making their recommendations to Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, MP Ed Miliband, who has the final say on whether NSIP solar developments will go ahead.

For more details go to https://greenhillsolar.co.uk/.