Derbyshire solar panel rebel backs down to avoid prison

Mary Smail said the panels were not visible from the street and had not been the subject of any complaints

A woman who put solar panels on her Grade II listed home without permission is to remove them after being warned she could go to prison.

Environmental activist Mary Smail, who already has a criminal record for taking part in climate action, said she did not want to risk being jailed.

She has been involved in a long-running and costly legal battle with Derbyshire Dales District Council.

The council said the 16 solar panels caused "harm" to "heritage assets".

The home in Church Street in Ashbourne is in a conservation area

Ms Smail, 64, from Church Street in Ashbourne, applied to the council for planning permission to install the solar panels but said she was advised there was no chance of it being granted due to the historic nature of the area.

She then installed them anyway while the council was considering her application and applied retrospectively for permission, which was refused.

The council finally got a court injunction to force her to take the panels down by June.

When she did not, it wrote to her warning her she could be jailed for two years if she had not taken steps to remove them by a new deadline of 19 September.

Ms Smail said she did not attend the injunction hearing because she was at a different court supporting her partner, who was one of the protesters who climbed on a gantry over the M25.

'Alien shape'

Ms Smail, who said she had previously been fined for obstructing the highway during Insulate Britain and Extinction Rebellion protests, said: "This isn't a hill worth dying on because I think I've made my point.

"Nobody is going to want to go to prison for two years over solar panels."

She said she had contacted the installers and is in the process of arranging a date to get them taken down.

In a statement, Derbyshire Dales District Council said: "Unfortunately, the solar panels installed on the roof introduce an alien shape, grouping, texture and reflective quality in place of the existing matt finish, texture and appearance of the clay tiled roof.

"Our planning committee agreed that the modest general public benefit of the installation was clearly outweighed by the harm caused to the heritage assets in this case."

Mary Smail and her partner Anthony Whitehouse are both climate activists

As well as being Grade II listed, Ms Smail's home is in a conservation area.

Adding solar panels to a property normally falls within the scope of "permitted development", so planning permission is not required.

However, putting solar panels on listed buildings and those within conservation areas usually does require planning permission.

In addition to planning permission, Listed Building Consent is required for changes to a listed building in any manner which would affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest.

Historic England advises people to check the website of their local council, as policies vary between councils.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council, for example, introduced a Local Listed Buildings Consent Order so that residents of Grade II and most Grade II* listed buildings no longer need to apply for individual consent to install solar panels.

The council said the solar panels introduced "an alien shape, grouping, texture and reflective quality"

Ms Smail said she had spent £10,000 on legal fees and had also been asked to pay £9,700 to cover the council's legal costs.

Ms Smail previously told the BBC she had broken the rules "in order to open the dialogue".

"If bad laws are not challenged then they never get changed and we can see that through things like the suffragettes and civil rights in America," she said.

"I knew that I was going to get into a lot of trouble for it but I thought it was worth it."