Claydons Solar Action Group

04/09/2026

This ring any bells with our landowner??

🚨 THE FARMER LOSES THE LAND. THE LANDOWNER GETS THE SOLAR DEAL.

We keep being told that “farmers are cashing in from solar.”

But what if the farmer DOESN’T own the land?

At Eden Farm in Old Malton, a farming family whose connection with the land stretches back to 1954 faces losing around 110 acres — almost half of its tenanted holding — to a 40-year solar development.

And this isn't simply campaign rhetoric.

The Planning Inspector found the scheme would cause “irreversible detriment” to an existing successful agricultural business.

The farmer opposed the development.

The council rejected it.

Yet the Government ultimately approved it.

And North Yorkshire Council's own planning report acknowledged that the longer-term economic benefits would accrue mainly to the landowner, while farming activity and the agricultural economy would suffer.

That destroys one of the easiest arguments used against those of us fighting industrial-scale solar:

“The farmers want it because they're making a fortune.”

Sometimes they aren't.

Sometimes the person receiving the solar deal and the person actually farming the land are two completely different people.

And there is another extraordinary dimension to this story.

The corporate freeholder identified by the farming family is Fitzwilliam Trust Corporation Ltd. Companies House records show that Helena Rees-Mogg, wife of Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, is an active director of that company.

That does not prove that Sir Jacob owns the land, negotiated the solar agreement or receives income from it — and my article makes that distinction very clearly.

But given Sir Jacob's outspoken opposition to Net Zero, it is a corporate connection that deserves scrutiny and an explanation.

This case should make every MP, councillor and member of the public ask a very simple question the next time somebody says:

“Farmers are cashing in from solar.”

👉 Which farmer?

The person who owns the land?

Or the person whose family has spent generations actually farming it?

Because when tenant farmers lose their land, Britain doesn't simply lose acreage.

We lose farming businesses, food-producing capacity, family succession and another piece of our countryside.

Please read and share this investigation 👇

http://hopetosaveourcountryside.com/2026/09/03/the-farmer-loses-the-land-the-landowner-gets-the-solar-deal/

04/09/2026

In the latest Claydon Estate Newsletter from Nicholas Verney:

“For more than 20 years, the Verney Foundation - which is independent of Claydon Estate, though the Estate supports much of its administration - has supported charities and good causes across communities local to Claydon and further afield across Buckinghamshire.

The latest round of grant recipients reflect the Foundation's long-standing commitment to helping people and places thrive, including Furze Down School a specialist school in Winslow, The Country Trust's Food Discovery Programme and local nursery The Circle Centre.”

If they are doing some good in our local communities, how come they are completely ruining our Claydons countryside all around Botolph and East Claydon by taking land from our tenant farmers and businesses and leasing to EDF - for the huge Rosefield Solar ‘Industrial’ farm!

Comments please!!

03/09/2026

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7903w0z28zo

03/09/2026

Botley West Solar Farm decision delayed again. Perhaps the government are beginning to realise they are making a huge mistake letting these happen!

The government delays its decision on the Botley West solar farm proposals until November.

03/09/2026

https://www.energylivenews.com/2026/09/03/uk-battery-storage-is-at-risk-of-cyber-attacks/

Greg Smith MP Callum Anderson MP

A study has found that there is a 93% probability of danger in the next five years

01/09/2026

Please sign and share the petition below:

Introduce: (1) an immediate moratorium on planning approvals for BESS (Battery Energy Storage Systems) and Data Centres outside designated AI Growth Zones; (2) mandatory Rural Impact Assessments conducted at local level; and (3) mandatory comprehensive investigation into financing of all proposals.

27/08/2026

PLEASE LOOK AT THIS AND SHARE!
I will be emailing Greg Smith MP and Callum Anderson MP today too!

ONE PLAN WILL BE CHOSEN. YOU WON'T SEE THE REST.

This autumn the Government will decide where Britain's energy
infrastructure goes for the next 25 years. The options are being kept
private.

WHAT IS HAPPENING

The national grid operator has drawn up several rival national plans for
where new solar farms, battery storage and pylons should go.

The plans go to the Energy Secretary in private. One will be chosen. The
rejected ones are not being published.

The public is only consulted afterwards, on the plan that has already
been picked.

WHY IT MATTERS WHERE YOU LIVE

The chosen plan becomes the reason given for everything that follows.
Objections to individual schemes get answered with "this is settled
national policy".

Communities across the country are already facing solar farms, battery
storage sites, substations and pylon routes. The chosen plan will decide
how many more come, and where.

Nobody outside government will be able to check whether a cheaper or
less damaging plan was rejected.

WHAT YOU CAN DO. TEN MINUTES.

Email your own MP. Search your postcode at members.parliament.uk to find
their email address.

Put "Strategic Spatial Energy Plan" in the subject line, and ask them to
press the Government on three things.

ONE. Publish all the plans, and the evidence behind them, before the
choice is made.

TWO. Publish what each one costs, including pylons, back-up and the
effect on bills.

THREE. Guarantee the consultation can still change the answer, and that
Parliament votes on it.

Say where you live and why it matters to you. A short email in your own
words counts for far more than a copied one. Please send it this week.
The plans were due with the Energy Secretary this summer. Once the
choice is made, it is too late.

Please copy this, pass it on, and send it to your own MP wherever you
live.

MPs and Members of the Lords sit in the two Chambers of Parliament scrutinising the Government and debating legislation. Find Members of Parliament (MPs) by postcode and constituency, and Members of the House of Lords by name and party.

25/08/2026

Not surprising really.... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/24f457c352da6f04?fbclid=IwY2xjawT6ZwVwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR5fT_Tjudf_nB7GVxKym3RT3HjrATvUT_BNDRruq2POB3njI54tRQSKRhlfHw_aem_CC1PJrfm0QktGfEtlrK_9w

Rising prices mean decarbonising energy system by 2030 could cost billions more than expected