A bizarre legal threat is facing Bristol City Council relating to a giant solar farm fraud case in Essex. Despite Bristol having ‘no involvement at all’ in the case, it was included on a list of 23 councils who could be sued by Thurrock Council.
According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Thurrock is ‘taking the extraordinary step’ of threatening to sue 23 local authorities. Two years ago Thurrock went bust after falling victim to “potentially the largest fraud ever perpetrated against a UK local authority”.
Thurrock invested in solar farms that were massively overvalued by the Association for Public Service Excellence, which is owned by members including more than 250 local authorities, such as Bristol City Council. APSE strongly denies the allegations, the Bureau said.
The ownership structure means its members share liability in legal action, and Thurrock has selected a sample to include in its claim. A spokesperson for Bristol City Council said: “We cannot comment on potential future legal action.”
According to a source familiar with the matter, Bristol City Council was not involved with any of the activity which Thurrock is pursuing APSE for. Only Thurrock and APSE appear to know details of the proposed claim, and the council’s legal team is still waiting for a letter lodging the claim. It’s also unclear how Thurrock has “randomly” selected the 23 councils on the list.
The value had been inflated because of figures given to APSE by the owner of the solar farms, according to the Bureau. APSE said it relied on information from the owner and had not made mistakes in its own calculations.