POLITICAL parties in Wokingham united to approve the next step in creating a solar farm in Barkham, estimated to cost £20 million.
Proposed by the previous Conservative-led administration, the then opposition parties abstained on a vote to progress the plans over a lack of a prepared business case.
But at a special council executive meeting, held on Thursday, June 30, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats agreed to progress the case.
In the executive meeting moments before, the executive member for the climate emergency, Cllr Sarah Kerr, explained that they were in favour of generating renewable energy, and it was essential given the energy crisis.
“The frustration that we had last year was when that proposal came to full council, there was a distinct lack of information and costs were omitted,” she said.
“There’s no business case in there. There’s no decommissioning costs. We are now starting to get a better picture of this project, but we still have a number of questions that need to be fully answered.
“In the interest of transparency, I’ve put in a request that the updated business case, with full cash flow, goes to scrutiny (committee). I think we need to ensure that we’re being fiscally responsible as a local authority, and have that cross party scrutiny in a public meeting is going to be essential.”
The scrutiny process would run parallel to the procurement phase to avoid any further delays.
She also thanked her predecessor, Cllr Gregor Murray, for his work in getting the proposals to this stage.
Cllr Imogen Shepherd-Dubey, the executive member for finance, said “We’ve got increasing energy prices that are affecting everybody, including the council. I would like to see this move forward … the business case isn’t there yet, but it looks good from an investment point of view.”
Council leader Cllr Clive Jones said: “I still have some difficulties with the figures. When the proposals were talked about, there were supposed to be four solar farms for £20 million. Now we’ve got one, with costs rising.”
He wanted to know if there had been a good explanation for this change in costs.
“I can’t explain what happened in the previous administration, that’s not for me to answer,” Cllr Kerr said. “This is why I’ve asked for an updated business case … I’m feeling more confident, but there are still questions.
“I’ve reached out to Cllr Murray, and offered him a briefing with officers and myself… I’m happy we’re going down the right route.”
Cllr Prue Bray said that the council had arranged for more of the information on the proposals to be released in the public part of the meeting, but some details had to be kept confidential at this time.
She explained: “We don’t want to tell people who are about to tender for projects how much we expect them to cost … it’s a complicated thing, there are some things we must keep confidential, but we will try and be as transparent as we can.”
Cllr Kerr said she had requested best and worst case scenarios as part of this. Other items for consideration included what happened to the energy generated, whether it would be used by the council for its needs, or sold to energy suppliers.
The executive approved the plan unanimously, and there was then a short adjournment for the special council meeting, which was chaired by the borough mayor, Cllr Caroline Smith.
No councillor wished to speak against the report, however Conservative Cllr Charles Margetts tried to ask a question about the financing of the proposal. Opposition leader, Cllr Jorgensen, also tried to ask a question. As the council’s constitution only allows for people to speak against a motion, this was denied.
Cllr Jorgensen pointed back to last week’s extraordinary council meeting where proposals to move local elections to once every four years were rejected by the Liberal Democrats.
“Clive’s tactic from full council was to speak against it, but in favour,” she said.
Cllr Jones asked if she wanted to speak against the solar farm motion.
Responding, Cllr Jorgensen said: “Well, you did that for council. You said you wanted to speak in favour and then continued to speak against.”
Cllr Jones pointed out that he was proposing the motion, and it was a slightly different situation to the one in hand.
Cllr Jorgensen then agreed to email her question, and the mayor held the vote which was passed unanimously.
