Agenda item

·    Any member of the public, who lives, works or studies in North Yorkshire and York can ask a question to the Panel.  The question or statement must be put in writing to the Panel no later than midday on Monday, 2 February 2026 to Diane Parsons (contact details below). 

·    The time period for asking and responding to all questions will be limited to 30 minutes. No one question or statement shall exceed 3 minutes.

·    Please see the rules regarding Public Question Time at the end of this agenda page.  The full protocol can be found at www.nypartnerships.org.uk/pfcp.

 

A question was put to the Panel by Caroline Clayton, as follows:

 

“Thank you for taking my question today.

 

I’d like to ask for the Panel’s views on whether there is scope for the police and fire Services to be statutory consultees and take a formal role in the planning process for solar farm developments in North Yorkshire, and what opportunities or challenges the Panel sees in that approach.

 

Solar farms bring new and very real safety considerations.  These sites often span hundreds of acres and contain photovoltaic modules, with vegetation underneath, inverters, high voltage direct current cabling and associated electrical infrastructure.

These present a tangible risk of electrical fault and fire.

 

Remote installations can attract theft, vandalism and trespass. Good security design from the outset protects critical infrastructure and reduces risks to both the public and responding police officers.

 

Early involvement from the police and fire services helps ensure sites are designed so crews can reach incidents quickly and operate safely.

 

In some proposals, an example being the proposed Stell Solar Farm, Lords Lane, Bedale, planning reference ZB25/01246/FUL, there is an existing family home located in the centre of the proposed solar farm.  This proposed site is also criss-crossed by public rights of way running north to south and east to west.

 

That raises serious questions about evacuation routes, and how incidents could affect other nearby residents too. Those risks must be properly assessed at the design stage — not after problems arise.  The site is located in a rural setting with narrow lanes, narrow field entrances, soft verges, and with distance to hydrants this could significantly impede the emergency services’ ability to access the site quickly and deploy appropriate resources. In a fire scenario, solar panel arrays may also propagate flames across long rows of panels or trigger adjacent field fires, placing nearby residents, fauna and property at risk.

 

In the event of a fire involving PV modules, the release of toxic fumes from plastic resins, heavy metals and chemicals is a recognised hazard. Further, fire-water run-off may carry contaminants into soil and watercourses, potentially causing long-term environmental harm.

 

Making emergency services statutory consultees doesn’t delay renewable energy — it ensures it’s delivered safely, responsibly and with the protection of local communities at its heart.

 

In other areas of Yorkshire, examples being East Yorkshire and Doncaster councils, the police and fire are statutory consultees in solar farm applications.

 

To recap - I’d like to ask for the Panel’s views on whether there is scope for the police and fire services to be statutory consultees and take a formal role in the planning process for solar farm developments in North Yorkshire, and what opportunities or challenges the Panel sees in that approach.”

 

The Deputy Mayor outlined current practice, namely that the fire service is not a statutory consultee but provides operationally-focussed risk‑based guidance when invited by local planning authorities.  Early engagement between developers and emergency services is strongly encouraged and a structured process is in place for pre‑application dialogue.  The Deputy Mayor also underlined that it is important that the right balance is struck between carbon reduction and investment in sustainability and that the public and firefighters are kept safe.  The Deputy Mayor offered to provide a response in writing to Caroline.

 

Following discussion among Panel members, it was noted by North Yorkshire Members that if the fire service provides comments on an application that these should ordinarily appear on the planning portal held by the council and it would be noted in the committee papers that the service had responded/commented.  It was noted by a York Member that police and fire are similarly routinely engaged regarding solar farms and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) but are not statutory consultees unless the application pertains to a nationally significant level of infrastructure. 

 

Panel members discussed the opportunities and challenges of the potential for statutory‑consultee status of the police and fire services.  Of particular concern was the potential impact on resource, should the services be compulsorily required to attend and review each application for solar farms.  Members highlighted that parish councils provide a useful way of raising concerns on applications as well as individually. 

 

The Chair thanked Caroline Clayton for attending the meeting.

 

It was noted that an additional public question had been received regarding road safety statistics but that the individual was not able to attend and ask their question at the meeting.  The Deputy Mayor offered to contact the individual to provide a response.

 

Resolved

 

That the Panel

 

(a)   receives a written response to the public question regarding solar farm applications from the Deputy Mayor, to provide to the questioner; and

(b)   receives a written response from the Deputy Mayor to a question forwarded regarding road safety, to pass on to the questioner who was absent from the meeting.