East Lindsey District Council awaits Supreme Court decision

East Lindsey District Council has installed £400,000 worth of solar photovoltaic panels across five sites. The solar scheme has seen solar arrays installed at the Meridian Leisure Centre and London Road Sports Ground, Louth; Embassy Swimming Pool and Embassy Theatre, Skegness; and Horncastle Swimming Pool.

Following Government’s decision to appeal to the Supreme Court, the council’s solar project was fast-tracked to be completed before the March 3 deadline.

A spokesperson for the council told the Skegness Standard: “A High Court ruling in late January means the panels may generate £1,680,000 of income to support local services, as opposed to £875,000 at the lower rate, over their 25 year life expectancy. The High Court ruling implies that any schemes completed by March 3 would potentially be entitled to the higher rate tariff and the council, working in partnership with local Contractor, Seymour and Castle Ltd from Louth, accelerated its original programme to ensure the deadline could be achieved.”

The council are aware that even at the lower rate, the solar investment would still deliver a 119 percent return on investment, slashing £13,000 off its annual electricity bill as well as saving 71 tonnes of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

Portfolio Holder for the Environment, Councillor Steve Newton, said: “This project is important in our plans to deliver financial savings and also make a significant reduction in our CO₂ emissions.

“We’ve worked hard to ensure we were able to hit the March 3 deadline and our thanks go to Seymour and Castle, who have done a great job to enable us to achieve this. We must now await a Government decision on the level of feed-in rate we will receive.

“We must continue to work hard to make savings and to reduce the impact our services have on the environment and this is one part of a much wider programme across the council and all its services and buildings.”

During Solar Power UK’s Coping with the Cuts Roadshow, a DECC spokesperson confirmed that the Department of Energy and Cliamte Change has submitted an application to the Supreme Court and will receive a decision as to whether it will be granted an appeal “over the coming weeks.”