Why Ed Miliband Should Have Thrown Out the Whitestone Solar DCO

When the people of Doncaster and South Yorkshire are told they must sacrifice their countryside for a so-called “green future,” they expect the government to enforce the law, follow the evidence, and defend the public interest. Instead, Ed Miliband is sleepwalking us into disaster by allowing the Whitestone Solar Farm Development Consent Order (DCO) to proceed — despite glaring, fatal flaws.

This is not policy. This is dereliction of duty.

1. Green Belt Protection Ignored

Whitestone admits the project will be built on Green Belt land. Under the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), this is only permissible under “very special circumstances.”

But where are they?

No independent assessment.

No balancing exercise.

No recognition that Green Belt loss is supposed to be an absolute last resort.


Miliband should have stopped this here and now. Instead, he’s letting developers bulldoze planning law in plain sight.

2. Farmland at Risk, No Soil Data

The UK is in a food security crisis, yet the Whitestone application provides no Agricultural Land Classification (ALC) assessment. We do not know whether this is Best and Most Versatile land (Grade 2/3a), which is supposed to be protected under government policy.

Miliband has a legal duty under the NPPF and the Agriculture Act 2020 to safeguard productive farmland. By allowing Whitestone to proceed without the data, he is actively betraying British farmers.

3. Battery Fire Risks Brushed Aside

The project includes a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) “like shipping containers”. Anyone who has studied BESS knows they are not harmless boxes — they carry risks of:

Explosions,

Toxic plumes,

Thermal runaway fires that firefighters cannot extinguish.


There is no hazard modelling, no emergency planning, no consultation with the fire service.

Miliband knows the risks — NFCC and HSE have issued repeated warnings — yet he allows this to advance with no safeguards. That is reckless.

4. Biodiversity and Hedgerows – Abandoned to Developers

The law requires biodiversity baseline surveys and protection of important hedgerows under the Hedgerow Regulations 1997. Whitestone’s consultation waffles about “bug hotels and bat boxes” but contains no real science, no surveys, no habitat mapping.

Miliband’s department has a duty under the NERC Act 2006 to conserve biodiversity. Instead, he waves through paperwork that wouldn’t pass GCSE standard.

5. Grid Connection – Fantasy Not Fact

Whitestone wants to plug into Brinsworth Substation. The problem?

Brinsworth is already over-loaded.

Appendix G and ESO data confirm there is no deliverable capacity until the 2030s.

No reinforcement plan exists.


This project is undeliverable. Yet Miliband pretends it will power “250,000 homes” — a fantasy number built on sand.

6. Flooding and Cumulative Impacts – Missing in Action

There is no Flood Risk Assessment. No modelling of cumulative impacts with Fenwick, Thorpe Marsh, Marr Farm, Tween Bridge, and dozens of other Yorkshire schemes.

The EIA Regulations 2017 make cumulative assessment mandatory. But the draft Environmental Statement just shrugs. Miliband should have ordered this struck out. Instead, he turns a blind eye.

Conclusion: Miliband’s Dereliction of Duty

Ed Miliband likes to talk about “clean power by 2030.” But clean power does not mean ignoring planning law, endangering communities, or trashing farmland and Green Belt.

By letting Whitestone advance to DCO despite fatal omissions, Miliband is:

Breaking the government’s own policies.

Failing his statutory duties.

Betraying rural communities.

Laying the groundwork for projects that cannot even connect to the grid.


This is not energy policy. It is ideological vandalism. And it is why Whitestone should never have been allowed to get this far.