Warrington Council to carry on with Doncaster solar farm

The Labour-led council is buying the farm near Doncaster and dismissed objections at Friday's scrutiny committee from the Tories over the deal.

The meeting, held behind closed doors at the Town Hall, has been described as 'inherently unfair' by the Conservative opposition who say they continue to have concerns over the investment.

But now the other opposition group on the council, the Liberal Democrats. accused the Tories of 'fanciful objections' saying the investment does not carry high risk.

The Conservative group called the meeting 'inherently unfair' saying there was not enough time to debate the investment. And they were angry that they had no right of reply to Labour cabinet members who spoke.

Cllr Mark Jervis (CON Appleton) said “The Labour cabinet members’ responses to our call in were not always consistent with information provided ahead of the meeting or failed to properly address some of the genuine concerns that we raised. Furthermore, the Labour leadership also appeared to misrepresent some of our call in evidence on risks. However, we had no right of reply on any of these matters.”

Cllr Jervis says the group continues to have concerns over the council's ability to follow guidance on investment as well as on the environmental and financial benefit of a solar farm to Warrington.

He added: “Labour cabinet members failed to address a number of our questions on this investment despite its reliance on public funds. It is also disappointing that Labour plan to push ahead with this investment despite Labour’s failure to fully implement recommendations from a review of its commercial investments undertaken some two years ago. In addition, there has been no apparent learning from the failure of Labour’s Together Energy investment earlier this year.

“The Labour cabinet also seek to avoid criticism by saying that the Conservative opposition is attacking the professionalism of council officers. This is an unacceptable deflection tactic. Labour Cabinet members alone are responsible for investment decisions and they should stop trying to hide behind council officers."

The group says it is raising serious concerns with the external auditor and with the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).”

However the call-in was vigorously attacked by the Liberal Democrats who said without investment, the council would risk being unable to meet its running costs.

Lib Dem Group Leader Cllr Bob Barr said, “My party is passionately committed to combating climate change and investing in solar farms is a well established way of doing this. Council officers have been successfully investing in solar generation for many years and have considerable experience.

"They bought in expert advice on both the technology and the financial modelling from leading national experts. The call-in was fundamentally an attack against officers who were providing the best advice they could on how the council can fund its activities in very difficult circumstances. Of course, there is a risk involved, but the risk of being unable to meet the running costs of the council is greater and would affect everyone in the town. The Conservative group does not appear to believe in funding public services, preferring cuts or privatisation instead.

Cllr Bob Barr

"Their attack followed familiar lines. We heard a fanciful set of objections based on the risk of technological change overtaking the tried and tested technology of current solar panels and batteries. Then the attack moved onto the familiar territory of describing the council’s revenue earning investments as debt, even though at current valuations the investments are worth significantly more than was invested. They attempted to associate the solar farm project with the controversial Together Energy and Redwood Bank investments which was unfair given the Council’s record on solar investments. The entire investment portfolio, mainly comprising loans to social housing providers secured against their housing stock, was described as “high risk”, which it clearly is not."

However Cllr Barr agreed that more openness is needed on decision making.

He added: "Decisions should be made with ‘a presumption in favour of openness’ and ‘giving reasons for the decision’. Both could have been achieved had opposition leaders been allowed to attend a confidential Risk Management Workshop to discuss the investment and ask questions. The planned workshop was cancelled and not rescheduled, so the Cabinet took this decision alone with no opposition input.”