The problems behind a £34m taxpayer-funded solar farm in Soham

Stretching across farmland in rural Cambridgeshire, North Angle Solar Farm was supposed to provide a green alternative to oil and gas and bring in millions to the county council to fund local services. But beset by years of delays, the £34m project is so far making less money than it was hoped, while its community path ends abruptly in a field and is choked in weeds. Now an internal report, obtained by the BBC, lays bare some of the failures behind the scheme.

Take a long, windy walk through the Fens it is difficult to miss North Angle Solar Farm amidst the flat lands, nestled between the east Cambridgeshire settlements of Soham and Wicken.

Through an unlocked gate, David Woricker, the chair of Soham Town Council, walks into the community orchard built by Cambridgeshire County Council alongside the solar farm, examining the current state of the trees.

He is concerned the trees “aren’t being cared for properly and therefore aren’t going to survive and thrive”.

“What we don’t want to see is an attempt at planting some trees and then letting that fall away and it becoming wasteland when it could be a massive asset for both the communities of Soham and Wicken,” Woricker says.

A few hundred metres away down a newly-built path that stops short is North Angle Solar Farm, spread across 188 acres (76 hectares) and reportedly the largest solar farm in the county, it aims to provide electricity for 12,000 homes.

It was built by the county council after it had success with a smaller-scale Triangle Solar Farm in Soham.