Barkham Solar Farm

This FOI request asks for the estimated financial cost/benefit analysis of the proposed solar farm at Barkham. Wokingham Borough Council has undertaken public consultation on this matter and recently applied formally, to itself, for planning permission. As far as I am aware, there has so far been no published information of the financial cost/benefit analysis of this proposal available to the public.

The only reference to this seems to be in the reported results of the public consultation in the Planning Application, Statement of Community Involvement March 2021 v1, Annex D (page 10), Item 5 (but un-numbered): “it is considered that there is a sound business case for the Council to bring the development forward.” Item 4 also states that Wokingham Borough Council will fund and own the solar farm. This may be true legally but the funding will also come from Wokingham Borough Council domestic council tax and business rate payers. Should the project not work out financially, no doubt these payers will have to cover any losses. The public consultation also raised the question of the impartiality of decision making with Wokingham Borough Council proposing the scheme on Wokingham Borough Council land via Wokingham Borough Council's planning process (Annex C, page 9). This could be seen as Wokingham Borough Council marking its own homework and this decision-making must surely be open and transparent by publishing financial estimates, for further public comment.

Generating electricity though solar power and saving carbon is to be encouraged but when using public money it must be based on a realistic assessment of the financial cost/benefit. If the finances are so good, why is the project not being offered to a commercial enterprise, with Wokingham Borough Council taking a fee from the enterprise at no risk to Wokingham Borough Council domestic and business tax/rate payers?

1. This FOI request therefore asks for public visibility of the estimated cost/benefit analysis of the proposed solar farm at Barkham.
Wokingham Borough Council do not hold this information. The costs are not known yet and the work is in the course of completion (https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1637/eir_material_in_the_course_of_completion.pdf). The service involved have advised that they will publish details in future once they are able to do so, and that the process is at an early stage at this time.