A former Eton schoolmate of Prince William is locked in a battle with a couple over plans to build a solar farm that would surround their £1m farmhouse.
Sir Henry Ropner, 43, who reportedly dated Kate Middleton when she and William briefly split, has agreed a deal to lease 113 acres of land to build a solar farm in North Yorkshire.
But Nigel and Crystal Foster, aged 63 and 59, say their lives have been turned upside down as their 'peaceful, tranquil, and pastoral' views of the Yorkshire Dales are under threat, as thousands of solar panels would surround their isolated property.
The semi-retired chartered surveyors have lived in their four-bedroom farmhouse, Lord's Moor Farm, in Bedale, since 1997, when they bought the 18th-century farmhouse for £200,000.
Sir Henry, an investment manager, lives with his family two miles away at the Grade II listed Thorp Perrow Hall, situated on the 100-acre woodland estate of Thorp Perrow.
