East Ilsley residents 'kept in the dark' over Thames Water solar panels

THAMES Water has been accused of riding roughshod over local communities in a bid to make money after it installed a number of solar panels the size of two tennis courts in fields in East Ilsley without informing the village.
East Ilsley Parish Council chairman Gordon Allsop said residents were not happy about being kept in the dark and the parish council had taken the water body to task after a series of large solar panels sprang up without warning near East Ilsley sewage works, in Haydon Lane.
The solar arrays are now visible to between 20 and 30 homes, and while supportive of any move to help the environment, Mr Allsop said the water firm had not shown due process and must inform the local community before ploughing ahead with such works.
“We didn’t find out about this until they turned up and started building,” he said yesterday (Wednesday).
“Thames Water said they had informed West Berkshire [Council] and after a period had been given the go-ahead to proceed, but no-one thought to tell us.
“It was only when we started asking questions that Thames Water moved into action and have promised they will look into it.
“A site visit was held yesterday (Tuesday) but we have informed them that they must remove the solar panels and submit a proper application form or we will consider taking legal action.
“We have been speaking to Hungerford Town Council and Welford Parish Council as they are next on the list; they aren’t happy at having no warning either. It is interesting Thames Water say they are doing this before the Government rate falls down at the end of the month.”
Thames Water has confirmed thar Aldermaston, Mortimer, East Ilsley and Pangbourne sewage works will soon see similar installations fitted.
In February, Ofgem, the energy regulator, signed-off the water company’s 3.7MW of photovoltaic solar power installations, declaring the scheme eligible for a higher per-unit Government payment tariff of 30.7p per kilowatt hour, ensuring that the firm, if it got the installations built in time, was eligible for millions of pounds in Government money.
Thames Water have said that profits were not the driving factor for building the solar panels, of which it intends to put up in eight locations across West Berkshire.
A spokesman for the water company, Simon Evans, said added that the firm had not broken any rules.
“We spoke to West Berkshire Council on January 27 about our proposals to install a 50 kilowatt PV (photovoltaic) solar array on our land at East Ilsley sewage work,” he said.
“The council confirmed three days later that this would fall under our permitted development rights.
“Once installed, the solar panels will generate renewable electricity from sunlight capable of meeting 3.3 times the site's needs, saving £1,200 a year in non-renewable power from the national energy supply grid and 27 tonnes a year of carbon emissions.”
West Berkshire Council is yet to respond to NewburyToday.