A borough council’s planning committee is on a mission to save the planet.

Maidstone councillors were asked to consider an amendment to a planning application from Inspired Villages with regard to phase two of the developer’s plans to build another 44 retirement homes at its Ledian Gardens retirement village in Upper Street, Leeds.

The company has already built phase one, comprising 72 homes, and had been granted permission for phase two in April 2020.

But it now wanted to amend the plans so as to include integrated solar panels on the roofs of the buildings.

Planning officers were concerned the site lies adjacent to a Conservation Area, was close to several listed buildings, and could be clearly seen from a public footpath.

For that reason, they had talked down the applicants from their original request for 354 solar panels to just 274 panels, principally by asking the company to have only a single row of panels on each of the rooftops, instead of sometimes two rows.

But when the committee heard from that developer’s agent Matthew Blythin that the reduction would compromise the firm’s ability to achieve net zero carbon emissions at the care village, they were outraged.

Cllr Tony Harwood (Lib Dem) said: “We are in the middle of a climate and ecological catastrophe; we can’t play around any more.”

Cllr Clive English (Lib Dem) asked: “Are we serious about stopping this planet from dying?”

While Cllr Stuart Jeffery (Green) described the reduction as “bonkers”.

The council’s head of planning, Rob Jarman, explained that planning officers were as keen as anybody to achieve net zero carbon emissions, but that they had also to take into account the council’s other planning policies, such as protection of the heritage environment. He said the reduced scheme was a compromise between achieving carbon neutrality and protecting heritage assets.

But Cllr English, referencing the wildfires that are currently raging out of control across the Greek Island of Rhodes and other European countries, said: “I don’t think there will be too much concern about conservation areas or AONBs when they’re all on fire. Let’s go back to the original plan.”

To do so, the committee had to defer a decision on the plan before them, for 274 panels, and ask officers to come back next month with a new application for the original proposal.

The decision is unlikely to please Leeds villagers who already regard the Ledian Gardens development as a “monstrosity”.

Details of the application can be viewed here. Application number 23/501361.

Ironically, the company had only needed to seek planning permission for the solar panels because it wanted to fit them as less intrusive integrated roof panels.

Had they waited until the homes were built, the firm would then have been allowed to add on the solar panels afterwards without making a planning application under permitted development rights.

In the meantime, the company has also gained planning permission for phase theee, the final stage of the development, this time adding another 39 homes, bringing the total to 155.