Mary Smail said it was wrong for the council to recognise climate change but order her to remove the panels (Picture: BPM Media)

A woman who installed solar panels on her rustic cottage has been told they must be ripped off.

Mary Smail had the eco-friendly energy sources put on the roof of her historic Peak District home.

The 63-year-old said she wanted them to do her bit for the climate but was refused planning permission.

Derbyshire Dales District Council knocked back her application in 2019 but the green activist wouldn’t take no for answer.

Despite being informed she lived in a local conservation area, Mrs Smail – whose partner took part in a Just Stop Oil protest on the M25 recently – went ahead with the work.

Now she’s locked in a bitter dispute with the local authority over the changes to her listed Ashbourne home.

The council has insisted on enforcing restrictions on what changes can be made to properties in the protected area despite declaring a climate emergency in 2019.

Ms Smails said: ‘When they did that, I challenged them and told them that I wanted solar panels and sent them a whole list of reasons why they should let me have them and they said ‘we probably won’t give you planning permission but you’ll have to put in an official planning permission in. 

‘So I thought ‘well they’ve already told me they won’t give me permission so I’ll just bloody do it, so I just bloody did it.’

Solar panels are increasingly popular but are restricted in some conservation areas (Picture: Shutterstock)

She applied retrospectively for permission but that was also refused by the council, and she was ordered to remove them. 

However, Mrs Smail refused to remove them prompting the council to go to Nottingham County Court for an injunction.

She added that she didn’t attend the hearing on December 1, explaining: ‘I was supporting my partner, who is terminally ill, he is one of the M25 Gantry climbers and I went to London to support him instead of paying any attention to this.’

That injunction was served on December 8 outside her home.

Despite the injunction, Mrs. Smail is adamant she won’t be taking the panels down any time soon.

She said: ‘On many grounds, I think they haven’t got a leg to stand on but they’re costing me tens of thousands of pounds but I’m fighting this battle with this blind bureaucracy that won’t listen to their own declaration of climate emergency.’

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She added: ‘I’m a person who believes in living with integrity and that means you have to make the right decision even if it’s costly and I think the right decision is that I should have solar panels and I think I should be allowed to keep them. 

‘I’m going to appeal against this injunction but if that fails I’m not minded to take them off.’

A council spokesperson said they have ‘tried to engage with Mrs Smail to resolve this matter in a manner that did not result in excessive expense and time to both parties’.

They said she was told she would need to demonstrate ‘special circumstances to preserve the historic special interest of the property and also that she had to demonstrate that the proposal had net environmental benefit’.

The spokesperson said she did not apply for planning permission, appeal or take up a second opportunity to apply for permission.

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They were installed without planning permission and now the council have ordered them to be ripped off.