🛑 A Crime Against Our Countryside: South Yorkshire Will Not Go Quietly

South Yorkshire has always been resilient.We’ve stood through pit closures, broken promises, poverty, and political betrayal. We powered this country once, and it came at a cost — the land, the air, the rivers, and the health of the people who lived here.And now, they want to take what little remains.Developers are quietly circling thousands of hectares of farmland and Green Belt across Doncaster and Rotherham for industrial solar and battery schemes.This isn’t rooftop solar.This isn’t local generation for local people.This is a land grab on a scale this region has never seen before.

🌳 What’s Left to Protect

At the heart of this is our countryside — the last green wedges that separate our villages, absorb floodwater, give us space to breathe, and keep our communities liveable.

⚡ Around 13 GW of solar is planned across Yorkshire & Humber.

⚡ 1.56 GW is aimed at Doncaster.

⚡ 1.04 GW at Rotherham.At roughly 3 hectares per megawatt, that means almost 8,000 hectares of land

🔸 20% of Doncaster’s Green Belt

🔸 15% of Rotherham’s.Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.

This land isn’t “spare.” It’s the living, breathing heart of South Yorkshire’s identity — what’s left after decades of coal, steel, motorways, warehouses, incinerators, and industry.

⚠ A Political Fault Line

Something extraordinary is happening.

Even politicians who normally toe the party line are breaking ranks.

Frontbench Labour MP John Healey has formally objected to the Whitestone Solar Farm proposal.When a Shadow Cabinet minister publicly opposes a solar scheme, it shows how serious this is.

Even Westminster can see that what’s being forced onto our communities is not just unpopular — it’s wrong.

This isn’t a left or right issue. It’s a South Yorkshire issue.

🧭 Brinsworth — The Monster in the Shadows

The fight isn’t only at Whitestone. An even bigger battle is coming.The proposed Brinsworth Substation hasn’t entered planning yet.There’s been no consultation. No scrutiny. No debate.But it’s already marked on the grid as one of the biggest planned substation hubs in South Yorkshire. Developers are moving early — grabbing grid capacity and farmland long before local people even know what’s coming.

If Brinsworth goes ahead, it will unlock a corridor of industrialisation:

Whitestone, Thurcroft, Marr Farm, Fenwick, Thurnscoe — and beyond.Once the land is fenced off, there’s no way back.

🕳 A Grid That Isn’t Ready

Here’s the bitter truth:

Most of these solar schemes can’t even connect to the grid until the 2030s.

Developers are grabbing land today for energy that can’t be delivered for at least a decade.This is planning by stealth — not planning by need.Meanwhile, local people are ignored, farmland is lost, and communities are left to pick up the pieces.

🌥 Solar’s Dirty Secret

The government sells solar as “clean, green and cheap.”But in reality, solar is the least efficient energy source in the UK.

☀ It generates the most power in summer — when demand is lowest.

❄ It generates the least in winter — when we need power the most.

⚡ It relies on grid capacity we don’t have.

💰 And it locks consumers into billions in hidden infrastructure costs.

Here in Yorkshire, with our latitude and long dark winters, it makes even less sense.

Solar won’t heat homes in January. It won’t power industry on freezing nights.It’s unreliable — and it’s being built for profit, not public good.

🧓 A Resilient People — Not a Silent One

The people of South Yorkshire don’t give in easily.

We’ve fought for our land before — and we’ll do it again.

At Whitestone, farmers, residents, councillors and campaigners are already speaking up.

Brinsworth may not be in planning yet — but this time, we’ll be ready before they are.

Our countryside isn’t empty space. It’s part of who we are.This land still matters. It always has.

✊ This Is Where We Draw the Line

📢 20% of Doncaster’s Green Belt.

📢 15% of Rotherham’s.

📢 Speculative solar and battery projects that won’t deliver power for a decade.

📢 A grid that isn’t ready.

📢 Technology that’s weakest when the UK needs energy most.

📢 Communities shut out of decisions.

This is not a clean energy plan.It’s a costly, inefficient land grab wrapped in green branding.South Yorkshire will not go quietly.We will not watch the last green spaces be stripped away.

We will not accept being treated as expendable.

This is our home.

Our countryside.

Our fight.And this time — we’re ready.