A solar farm can go ahead in the "perfect place" on the outskirts of St Ippolyts after being granted planning permission by North Herts Council's planning committee.

Approval for the 25 MW farm, covering 35.5 hectares of farmland to the south of Sperberry Hill, was voted through by six votes to four last Thursday (24 July) after a lengthy discussion about whether the land should be classed as grey belt or green belt.

The applicant and council officers – who recommended approval – had deemed that it did not strongly contribute to the purposes of the green belt and was therefore grey belt, meaning it would be harder to block development.

But several speakers at the meeting suggested the site strongly contributes to one of the green belt's purposes, preventing neighbouring towns from merging.

Cllr Dave Winstanley, who proposed approving the scheme, said: "The land has been determined as grey belt. Farmland is not lost.

"It's temporary, whether you agree with that definition of temporary or not. We need green energy.

"There will be advances at some point in nuclear fusion, so whether solar is obsolete within those 40 years, who knows."

The site has been given permission to be used as a solar farm for 40 years, after which it must return to agricultural land unless further permission is secured.

Cllr Winstanley's proposal was backed by Cllrs Ian Mantle and Clare Billing, as well as Cllr Mick Debenham, who said: "This site is next door to an absolute eyesore, the transformer station, [and] I don't see how this is going to make it any worse.

"This is a site that is next door to an [electricity] station with minimal amounts of nearby housing … seems the perfect place to put a solar farm."

The site is immediately next to Wymondley Grid Station. Nick Roberts, who represented the applicant at the meeting, said the connection would mean the farm "is able to be delivered and connected without any delay".

But Peter Hobson, a parish councillor in St Ippolyts who spoke to object to the scheme, said: "This land makes a strong and significant contribution to green belt purposes and the time to assert this is now before it is gone forever."

He pointed to a council-commissioned green belt review from 2016 which found that a parcel of land including part of the solar farm site did make a strong contribution to the green belt's purposes.

Paul Harding, a parish councillor in Wymondley, said the 1.5km-long farm would be "creating the feeling of coalescence between Stevenage and Hitchin". 

District councillor Ralph Muncer, who represents Codicote and Kimpton ward, said to the committee: "When you picture grey belt, I'm sure you picture some scrubland opposite a train station or a motorway.

"I'm sure what you don't picture is high-grade, agricultural green belt land in a rural setting. That is this site."

He added that North Hertfordshire had approved 150 hectares of solar farms in the last year and said "that is a sufficient contribution towards renewable energy and our fight against climate change".

Solar farms to receive planning permission – including after appeals and ministerial decisions – include Wandon End, Bygrave and Great Wymondley.

However, Mr Roberts, representing the applicant, said: "To deliver net zero in North Herts there will need to be over 750 hectares of new solar developments – that's approximately 25 schemes of the size of the one before you tonight.

"You are genuinely in a position where you have not done your bit, so to speak."

North Herts Council is committed to making the area a net zero carbon emissions district by 2040.

Council planning officers said only "very limited weight" should be given to the council's 2016 green belt review because it was commissioned for a different purpose and using different methodology.

It was agreed the land represented good and very good quality agricultural land.

Councillors on the committee who objected to the solar farm included Cllr Martin Prescott , who said he was concerned that approval would be "going some way to plugging the gap that currently exists between Hitchin and Stevenage", and Cllr Bryony May, who said she was "minded to refuse" because she was worried it would set a "precedent … for the rest of the green belt" in North Herts.

Cllr Caroline McDonnell said she was "really concerned" whether the land should be classed as grey belt or green belt.

"We need to be really sure this is grey belt rather than green belt," she said. "I do … have issues with this land being categorised as grey belt. It is green belt and it should be kept as green belt and a buffer between Hitchin and Stevenage."

Council officers had said in their report that they recommended permission be granted for the farm even if councillors believed the land was green belt rather than grey belt. 

A bid to reject the application was brought forward by Cllrs McConnell and Prescott, but failed by six votes to four.

A previous application for a similar solar farm on the site was rejected in 2023 on the grounds that it would result in "unacceptable harm to the character and appearance of the surrounding area" and that there were not very special circumstances that warranted building on the green belt. 

The concept of the grey belt has been added to planning policy since that decision was made.