OXFORDSHIRE has at least 30 schools which have solar panels – but the county council does not know exactly how many have them.

The authority said it 'does not hold' the information because schools would need to register for the panels and to feed them into the grid themselves.

But it said it knows of 30 schools that definitely have them.

Liberal Democrat county councillor John Howson asked for the information ahead of a county council meeting held on Tuesday.

He said he understood no Christian schools across the county have solar panels and that so few being used Oxfordshire is a 'serious shortcoming'.

Professor Howson is a keen advocate of solar panels being used on playgrounds, which are frequently not used during the day.

Lorraine Lindsay-Gale, the council's cabinet member for education and cultural services, said she will contact the Diocese of Oxford and the Archdiocese of Birmingham to see whether it is possible to install more solar panels.

A green energy scheme which hundreds of people in Oxford benefitted from was closed to new applicants last month.

Figures b the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy showed 1,085 households signd up to the feed-in tariff but it is closed to new applicants.