Miliband’s Green War: How Net Zero is Destroying the Countryside of the North

While southern counties are standing up to protect their landscapes, the north of England is being turned into a dumping ground for giant solar farms and battery parks — all in the name of Ed Miliband’s reckless “Clean Power by 2030” agenda.

The Wiltshire Example:

South Says No

In Wiltshire, councillors recently threw out plans for the Swallett Energy Park — a 114-hectare solar sprawl the size of 160 football pitches. Why? Because it couldn’t connect to the grid until 2036. Even Wiltshire’s planning committee chair admitted there was “no tangible public benefit” in approving a project that might not even happen for a decade.

The North: No Choice, No Voice

But while southern councils can still say no, the north has no such protection. Here, projects like Fenwick Solar Farm, Oaklands Farm (Derbyshire), and Byers Gill (County Durham) are not decided locally at all. They’re NSIPs (Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects) — meaning Ed Miliband’s Department for Energy signs them off directly.Local councils and communities are left powerless. Even when objections pour in, even when grid connection dates stretch into the 2030s, even when farmland and heritage sites are at risk — Miliband’s department waves them through.

A Tale of Two Englands

This is the scandal:

In the South, refusals are respected.

In the North, approval is imposed from Whitehall.

It’s a clear North–South divide. Our countryside, our farmland, our heritage — sacrificed to meet ideological Net Zero targets that ignore reality.

The Grid Reality

Every one of these NSIPs faces the same problem:

the grid can’t take the power. Transmission upgrades aren’t due for seven to ten years at best. That means:

Solar farms sit idle, wasting land.Farmland is ripped up for nothing.Local people lose, while speculators win.

Miliband’s Green Colonialism

This isn’t green policy. It’s green colonialism — imposed on the north without consent. Miliband and his officials talk about “national need”, but what they really mean is sacrificing the north to protect the south.

Time to Fight Back

The people of the north deserve the same respect as the people of the south. If Wiltshire can reject solar sprawl, so can Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Durham. The countryside doesn’t end at the M25.

Ed Miliband’s agenda isn’t about saving the planet — it’s about ticking boxes, grabbing headlines, and bulldozing the north in the process.