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Surprise permission for solar panels in West Cumbrian conservation area
Extract from Times & Star, Thursday, 11 August 2011 
A Cockermouth environmentalist has welcomed a decision allowing him to put solar panels on the roof of his listed building.
OVERJOYED: Michael Baron has welcomed a decision by Allerdale councillors to allow him to install solar panels at his home in Cockermouth
Michael Baron’s plans had been recommended for refusal on the grounds that they would not fit into the town’s conservation area. But Allerdale council’s development panel on Tuesday dismissed planning officers’ advice. Councillors voted in favour of the plan to install six solar panels across the front roofs of 26 and 28 South Street.
Mr Baron, a poet who stood for the Green Party in May’s local elections, said: “I am overjoyed and very surprised that the committee upheld what Cockermouth Town Council decided. This is a victory for common sense.
“You will notice them when they go up but people don’t walk around with their heads in the air and drivers should have their eyes on the road. “It’s the sort of thing only a conservation officer would spot.”
Speaking at the meeting, Coun Jim Lister said that the solar panels would be difficult to notice.
Coun Joe Holliday added: “It seems crazy that people want to save the environment but can’t because we have these policies in place.”
But planning manager Kevin Kerrigan said: “While you might not be able to see them from immediately in front they may be visible from other vantage points within the conservation area.”
Sam Standage, Allerdale and Cockermouth councillor, voted against the plan and said he did not want it to become a precedent.
Councillors agreed that the solar panels must be black in colour to make them inconspicuous
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