A second solar farm near York is progressing through the planning process, though formal applications have yet to be submitted.

Ampyr Solar Europe, who seek to develop a 22ha site north of Lords Lane and a 29ha site south of Lords Lane, Nether Poppleton, has been told it need not submit an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) as part of a planning application.

City of York Council planners told the company before Christmas that matters such as noise and dust during construction could be addressed in the formal planning application. They also called for biological enhancements to be delivered in the scheme.

They added that the proposed scheme would have no significant effects on the character of the location, which is not a designated landscape, and neither does it contain protected species or archaelogical sites.

Similarly, city planners have told Solar2 it need not submit an EIA concerning its proposals for 70ha scheme of Green Belt farmland between Hessay and Rufforth, situated to the north and south of Low Moor Lane, Hessay, as previously reported.

Though they said its plans are “fairly large scale” the scheme would not easily be visible over a long distance.

However, planning bosses have asked for an Ecological Impact Assessment as part of any future planning application.