Wokingham Borough under the Lib Dems pleads poverty, cuts crucial services like refuse collection and street maintenance, yet now says it can afford £25 m to buy itself a solar farm.
When the Borough first looked at such a plan the capital cost was £20m. So it has gone up by 25% since then. Interest rates then were a lot lower. That meant the scheme then could be worth the risks. Next the Council was told they could not connect to the grid until well into the next decade, undermining the scheme completely.
Today the Lib Dems want to revive it even though the risks have increased considerably. The future interest charges on the borrowing have leapt up to £16.44m and the repayments are increased with the higher capital costs. The only things taxpayers can be sure about is they will be paying back the money spent and the interest on it for many years. It is quite possible costs would escalate further during build, adding to the taxpayers burden.
The Council have made up for the big escalation in costs by claiming they will get more money for the electricity they will be selling if all goes well with the scheme. That may or may not be true. Power prices have been very volatile in recent years and can go down as well as up. They have been falling over the last year. They now think there will be a grid connection in 2026. Is that watertight and guaranteed? There is now an Electricity Generator Levy on solar for larger players. That tax might be extended to others.
Councillors should be careful before spending £25 million they need to borrow. We can be sure we will be lumbered with the debt, but a lot has to go right to make profits from 2026 assuming they can sell the power from that date.
The Council should concentrate on mending the potholes, re opening the roads and restoring a good refuse system instead of finding more ways to plunge Council taxpayers more into collective debt.
March 4, 2024
As A Wokingham rate payer faced with greatly increased Rates charges again this year, I strongly object to the Council entering into a risky and unnecessary project of which it has no relevant technical or commercial experience. I have already made arrangements to buy sufficient renewable electricity (solar & wind) capacity to meet my household needs so that in future I pay only the cost of generation and NOT the market rate. There is just no need for the council to spend my money on this vanity project.
March 6, 2024
I absolutely agree. WBC pleads poverty yet loans Surrey Council £10 million, it keeps doing unrepresentative, sloppy surveys and cuts rubbish collection and other services. I would like to know what WBC has done with the money it has received from developers. We pay over £3000 for absolutely NOTHING. Here in Charvil we are STILL waiting for the sinkhole problem to be resolved – and our Parish Council has to pay half. What are we actually receiving for our council tax? Certainly NOT services.
March 11, 2024
Ann – what you haven’t been told – all councillors agreed the loan to Woking – it provides a better rate of return than the banks and the interest can be spent on revenue items. Meanwhile this capital fund money is working until needed for the solar farm project – this is good financial planning- shame John Redwood puts political games in front of good governance
Reply You are talking about the wrong Council.
March 4, 2024
Councils sole role in life is to deliver the best environment & public spaces for the ratepayers. To make the ratepayers lives better. Not treat them as cash cows. Huge projects like this solar farm are not in any councils remit. These should be dealt with at national level.
This is a great example of where devolution is so wrong.
No council will have the knowledge,skill or accountability to deliver projects of this scale. It is a disaster waiting to happen!
March 4, 2024
absolute common sense, which unfortunately is so uncommon !
March 4, 2024
If Wokingham didn’t overpopulate itself, it wouldn’t need to waste so much on filling land with imported electrical panels from China to support excessive people.
A farm is “an area of land used for growing crops and rearing animals”; naturally more attractive than the shocking mess LibDems generate.
March 4, 2024
This is exactly how we expect libdems to behave. Like labour they are fascinated by technology and they dream of it creating their version of Utopia – Hell on Earth for the rest of us.
It seems that so many councils have been overtaken by the Climate Change Bug – It reduces their mental capacity and drains their common sense. It’s a virus far worse than covid which only maims and kills.
Perhaps drug companies could create a vaccine that restores sanity, but that would be like asking them to do something good for Mankind – which would of course go against their morals.
March 4, 2024
No one should be borrowing money especially councils. Debts must be paid off before you start looking at other ways of finance. It this solar project is anywhere near, or on, agriculture land it should not even be considered. Trouble is the Conservatives have turned into left wing liberals and we still have the horrible lib dems and labourites with us from long ago. No saviour on the horizon I fear.
March 4, 2024
TOTALLY typical of of lefty woke brain dead councils and individuals EVERYWHERE, Head up their a–e.
March 4, 2024
John, it does not surprise me, they are absolutely obsessed with Net Zero and all of the extensive costs that go with it.
Add to that, road narrowing, raised cycle lanes, increased parking charges, and traffic lights instead of roundabouts, and you then realise that far from making things easier and better, they are actually making it more difficult to travel and get about for the vast majority of residents.
March 5, 2024
It is not a Council’s job to get directly and financially involved in running a commercial enterprise and it is outwith their competence. If they want to encourage the production of more green electricity then they should offer planning assistance to those with suitable sites and, where the Council has suitable sites, look for an experienced and successful partner.
Suitable sites should surely include supermarket , station and council car parks as a first step.
March 8, 2024
Agreed – if its such a stellar business opportunity then commercial businesses would be clamouring to do it.
March 5, 2024
I agree, my council should not be engaging in such risky ventures and should focus on their core responsibilities
Note however – Wokingham council has been using the term Climate Emergency for years when it was Conservative led, so there are problems for ratepayers whichever section of the tribe are in power.
Amongst the justifications for the latest proposed increase in council tax and the explosion in proprety development is that Wokingham receives the least central government funding – why is this and what can be done about it?
Reply Not true.I setv out the numbers on this blog
March 6, 2024
@reply, thanks for reply, just looked at your previous blog entry. Sounds like what should be done by the council is to provide more transparency and engage in proper, non-partisan consultation.
March 11, 2024
dixie
If the Lib Dems did that, they would have no one else to blame but themselves, at the moment it is always somebody else’s fault !
March 5, 2024
I have got fed up with LD inconsistancies, especially around money. Unfortunately the public don’t see everything that way either, so they will think it a good idea. I am glad to be retired.
March 12, 2024
Allowing councils to be commercial businesses has opened a Pandora’s box.
With rate and tax payers as last resort councils can compete unfairly with businesses over which they also authority in licencing, regulations and planning.
So how will legislators close the box or mitigate these issues?