Council pledges to fight solar farm legal claims

East Riding Council has said it will “vigorously defend” itself as another council launches a £40m legal case against 23 local authorities.

Thurrock Council, a local authority in Essex, is suing 23 councils in an attempt to recoup losses made in a series of unsuccessful solar farm investments made between 2017 and 2020.

The councils are members of the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE), which Thurrock claims produced “negligent and overvalued” valuations of solar farm sites.

Thurrock Council leader John Kent said APSE provided "inaccurate valuations" which gave the council "misplaced confidence" in its investments.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the authority issued a section 114 notice, often referred to as a bankruptcy notice, in December 2022.

These notices are issued when a council runs out of money.

Mr Kent said: "Since we raised our legal concerns about the valuations with APSE in September 2023, we have explained that the council has no option but to pursue the millions of pounds of public money that was lost through poor investments.

"We know what a challenging time this is for all councils, and we never wanted to pursue individual councils, but unfortunately APSE didn’t have adequate insurance or protection in place, meaning that its member councils are liable for consequences of decisions taken by APSE."

East Riding Council said: "East Riding of Yorkshire Council along with 22 other local authorities has been named as a party to the proceedings and is intending, along with other local authorities, to vigorously defend the claim."

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