How the war in Ukraine could benefit West Berkshire

Profits from rising energy prices won the day over UK food production security with the approval of a 75-acre solar farm on council-owned farmland near Grazeley, West Berkshire.

West Berkshire Council’s eastern area planning committee was further convinced by the financial argument, after hearing the development of thousands of solar panels at Bloomfield Hatch Farm could generate as much as £3.9m a year.

The agents for the developer – in this case the council – countered those in favour of keeping the land as farmland with potential revenue figures, along with the argument that climate change was a bigger threat to the future of food security than changing farmland into a solar farm.

Chris Faulkner of Wokefield Parish Council disagreed with the scheme, saying: “The UK is not self sufficient in food production.

“We are on a downward trajectory and farm income from food production in this area fell by 54 per cent. This leaves us crucially vulnerable to world markets."

He said farms were mainly purchased by councils between the wars. Bloomfield Hatch is one of these farms and is home to a herd of short horn cattle.

He said: “It also rears 90,000 chicks laying 28 million eggs a year. It is a sustainable farm. It is West Berkshire Council’s responsibility to protect this for further generations. Solar panels would be better placed on brownfield sites, not on greenfield sites.

“This application confounds common sense and is likely to be out of date with future government policy,” he said.

Both Prime Ministerial candidates, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, have made hustings promises to rein back on planning for solar farms.

Details of previously kept-under-wraps business planning for the proposal also emerged, with the projected cost of the development forecast at £19m.

The council, in its own PR material announcing its intentions for the solar farm last year, put that figure at £10m. It changed that to £12m in its latest budget figures.

Digging into the viability of the site, it emerged that £19m repayment and running costs would be around £2m a year.

“Over 30 years that would mean £2m a year?” Asked Alan Law (Con Basildon). “You said revenue is £1.1m? If it's £1.1m and running costs are £2m it's not worth doing?”

Agent for the developer Ernie Shelton told the committee that £1.1m would be the worst case scenario, and that figure was based on energy unit prices of five pence per kilo watt.

“Because of Ukraine – that has allowed prices to rise to 18 pence. If you took the long run average of five pence per hour then you would be looking at £1.1m per annum. But if you assume energy prices remain high, at around 18 pence then it gives good return of around £3.9m.”

He then justified the project in economic terms.

“There are a number of things that drive energy costs,” he said.

“One is fundamentals. The other is sentiment.

“What do we think is going to happen in Eastern Europe? What do we think the Government’s response to that will be? That’s very hard to predict.

“Things that drive fundamentals are that in the long term we have to electrify transport and heat. Those two things account for two thirds of the UK’s energy consumption.

“So there is going to be a massive increase in demand for electricity in the coming years. Concurrently, we have to close down a number of nuclear power stations which account for 15 to 20 per cent of our energy generation. So there will be a massive increase in demand and a reduction in supply.

“Typically, with supply and demand, we see prices rise. So I think the long-term trend will see energy prices go up.”

Local residents opposing the scheme say they have been ‘stitched up’.

They are now threatening a judicial review and also criticised councillors for not speaking up for the residents nearby.

They claimed flooding or water run off would cause septic tanks to overflow, and said the road had seen many accidents.

“The planning committee received photographs of accidents with emergency services on scene," said Craig White of Bloomfield Hatch Residents' Association.

"It is clear our own local councillors have pushed for this application and other members have agreed.

"We feel entirely stitched up this was never going to be a fair decision.

"We will now progress formal complaint to the council with the possibility for judicial review to overturn the decision.”

There are around 470 solar farms around the UK, and the Government has promised to increase solar power generation fivefold by 2035.

Campaigners have warned that this could take as many as 150,000 acres of agricultural land out of production at a time when Britain has less farmland in use than at any stage since the end of the Second World War.

Miles Roberts from engineering company Rappor told the committee that West Berkshire has not been immune to the impacts of climate change, with frequent flooding events.

He said: “West Berkshire Council has declared a climate emergency. Boosting our renewable energy supply is the way to control our energy prices. It will be the equivalent of taking 2,000 cars off the road for 30 years.”

He added that the farmer will continue doing chicken farming.

“It's worth noting 0.08 per cent of land is even over to solar farms. Also NFU is supportive of solar farms as a way for farmers to diversify. Environmental impact is minimal. The real risk to farming isn’t renewable energy but climate change.

“Wheat production was down by 20 per cent due to heatwaves and flooding.

“By 2050 we could lose 70 pe rcent of our most versatile land. We would argue that dealing with climate change is the best way to support farmers.

"If we do have a crisis it is around energy.”

The committee voted through the proposal, which will see the solar farm operate for 30 years.

“Climate change is a real danger and we need to do our utmost to do something and make sure our energy supply is sustainable,” said Alan Macro (Lib Dem, Theale).