Wokingham farmer evicted as solar farm funding approved

The council has approved funding for 72,000 solar panels to be installed on the land Mr Lake farms

A tenant cattle farmer will be evicted after a council approved more than £20m of funding to turn the land into a solar farm.

The project in Barkham will see about 72,000 solar panels installed.

Farmer Andrew Lake, 58, said the land would be lost forever once the solar farm had completed its lifecycle.

Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) said it would be returned to agricultural use after 25 years, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

It said the £20,283,000 to be spent on the solar farm would be funded through borrowing.

Mr Lake keeps hundreds of cows at the rented farm in Barkham

Earlier this month, Mr Lake was given notice by the council to leave High Barn Farm in Berkshire where he has worked for nearly 15 years.

He keeps more than 360 cows on the farm that he rents from the council and insisted agricultural land should not be used for solar farms.

The council said "tough decisions" had to be made to achieve its climate emergency action plan.

Liberal Democrat councillor, Sarah Kerr, warned the farm could be reclassified as a brownfield site once its 25-year lifecycle ends.

Gregor Murray, council member for emissions, said that decision would "come down to national planning guidance".

The Conservative councillor added: "My personal intention would be that it returns to be farming, or that it continues to be a solar farm long into the future, but we can't guarantee that right now.

"But what we guarantee is that by turning it into a solar farm, it will not be housing right now, which definitely would never be returned to farming use in 25 years time."

The scheme would also involve planting roughly 18,000 trees, and measures to protect hedgerows and footpaths around the site.

It is hoped the solar farm will generate £500,000 for the council each year, after running costs and servicing the debt are factored in, LDRS reported.