Solar farm, 560 homes granted permission in Cumberland
Seals of approval were given to all of the applications on the local authority’s planning committee agenda this week, setting the area up for an influx of houses in Whitehaven, Carlisle, and Brampton.
Cumberland councillors met on Wednesday to debate on eight applications, all of which had been recommended for approval by council officers. The committee members opted to side with the professional team, giving each the green light. This included the £16m stadium for Workington AFC and Workington Town.
Read below for more detail on the applications that received votes to approve.
Land next to Ewanrigg Farm House in Maryport
- Application reference: FUL/2025/0080
The future is bright for renewable energy firm Anesco, which can now move forward with its plans to build a 13MW solar farm across two plots of agricultural land at Ewanrigg Farm in Maryport.
The plots total 48 acres and would be accessed from Church Road.
Anesco’s plans call for more than 20,600 panels to be placed on the plants, additional hedgerows and trees to be planted, and substations to be built. The construction period for the solar farm and its associated structures would be 40 weeks, and its lifespan 40 years.
In a nod to how difficult it is to get a grid connection, Cumberland officers agreed an extension of time for the permission to be implemented. Anesco will have five years to put its plans into action, two years more than the usual three.
PWA Planning is part of the project team, as are Urban Green and Gondolin Land & Water.
Land south west of Summergrove Park in Whitehaven
- Application reference: 4-25-2307-0F1
John Swift Homes secured the go-ahead for tis proposals to build 70 two- and three-bed homes on a 20-acre site in Goose Butts. Of the homes 10% are due to be affordable.
The project team includes TetraTech, Whistling Beetle Ecological Consultants, Beckwith and Hanlon Consulting Engineers, Alpha Design, Calderpeel Architects, Barnes Walker
Land at Carlisle Road in Brampton
- Application reference: 25/0533
Situated on 25 acres south of Carlisle Road, Story Homes’ neighbourhood would have 219 homes, including 65 that were designated affordable. The houses would have been two and six bedrooms.
The project team includes Ashwood Design Associates, Biodiverse Consulting, RS Acoustic Engineering, SLR Consulting, Eddisons, Westwood Landscape Design, and Summit Town Planning.
Land at Garlands Road and Cumwhinton Road in Carlisle
- Application reference: 25/0207
St Cuthberts Garden Village gets its start with Northern Trust’s application for 180 homes, the first of a proposed 10,000 for the village.
Northern Trust will turn its attention to 18.6 acres known as Bob Bell’s Field.
The project team includes Planit, Savills, and Wardell Armstrong.
Land at Currock Yard in Carlisle
- Application reference: 21/0744
An interesting application from Peterloo Estates – this project was actually approved at committee in 2022. However, it returned to council chambers this week because of its Section 106 agreement. Peterloo Estates was seeking to change these as the current conditions made the scheme unviable.
Council-appointed viability consultant CPV agreed, as did councillors.
The project for 92 homes was thus approved with a modified S106 that requires four bungalows, open space on site, parking management, and a review mechanism.
The project team includes Architects Plus, Frost Planning, BTG Eddisons, Elluc Projects
So a 13MW solar PV scheme is moving ahead; despite noting it’s far more power than the local area could ever use unless someone fancies opening a crypto mine.
Questions remain over whether the council has checked with the utility provider that the grid can take the surplus without triggering dwell‑time charges, the polite way the system says, “please stop sending us electricity and pay us for not generating”.
The site itself is active farmland, though the council will insist it’s “underutilised”. Replacing food production with solar panels simply means paying to switch off PV when the grid can’t cope and paying again to import food – a masterclass in national resilience on both fronts.
The council will maintain the project supports its net‑zero goals, though clarity on grid capacity, agricultural impact, and the logic behind 13MW is still pending. Further updates — or fresh buzzwords — are expected.
I am for changing our energy mix, but will we have one piece of co-ordinated thinking from any government?
By Steve5839