Packed public meeting opposes biogas plant plan for village

A packed public meeting at Anwick Community Centre saw around 120 villagers voice their concerns about the plant being put forward by Stream BioEnergy UK, with parish councillors urging residents to write in to Lincolnshire County Council, which will consider the proposal, as well as their MP and North Kesteven District Council as consultees.

The anaerobic digestion plant, located next to Moy Park’s factory on the western edge of the village, would process 120,000 tonnes of poultry manure from Moy Park’s chicken sheds and other agri-food organic wastes per year to produce green gas in the form of biomethane. This renewable gas will go into the gas grid.

The £115 million application has been in the works for more than a year and has recently been submitted – although an action group has already been formed and a petition against it has gathered more than 500 signatures.

They say traffic, bad smells, noise, increased flies, risk of explosions and potential pollution of the nearby River Slea would threaten their way of life, but the developer denies this.

The company claims it would create 100 construction jobs and then 30 permanent jobs during operation.

Banners and placards have already sprung up around the village saying ‘no to biogas plant’ which would be on land adjacent to the existing Moy Park food processing plant and include eight of the large digester tanks compared to the two seen at Holdingham Biogas plant near Sleaford.

At the village meeting called by the parish council, vice-chairman Mervyn Head outlined the details, thanks to help from the Anwick Action Group. He said: “Along with Moy Park’s site, the footprint of the two together is larger than all the houses plus Parker’s garden centre. It will become a housing estate attached to an industrial estate.”

He added that the digester tanks would be almost as large as Anwick parish church.

Citing recent experience of another biogas plant near Hemswell, he said: "Biogas plants do emit bad odours. They will be processing a different kind of waste than Holdingham as it won’t just be plant waste.”

He also referred to the biogas plant explosion at Avonmouth in 2020 which killed four men, as well as other examples. He added that gas leakages could also harmful to residents.

Parish council chairman Elaine Coulson said: “We are having an independent traffic survey done for a month and we want people to do their own surveys as drivers and pedestrians, noting how long it takes you to cross the road or turn onto it, as lorries will be coming to this plant from sites up to 60 miles away across the East Midlands.”

She also appealed for volunteers and donations of cash to help with the campaign.

The company has denied claims by campaigners that it also plans to create a biogas filling station which could fuel all Moy Park and parent company Pilgrim’s vehicles.

A Stream Bioenergy spokesperson added: “The concept of this plant is to serve the local agri-food sector, including local food processing plants and poultry farms. There are no plans to accept household food waste.”

The facility will also produce natural sustainable fertilisers for local farmers, to help achieve decarbonisation of local farming and industry.

Stream undertook public consultation on the proposed development during 2024, following which the scheme was amended to include a new access route to the Moy Park factory which will result in a reduction of 40 per cent of the HGV traffic coming into Anwick village from the west, it says.

Morgan Burke, Chief Operating Officer at Stream BioEnergy said: “The plant will be a state-of-the-art facility, stringently regulated by the Environment Agency. Our plans will deliver an economic boost to the area creating hundreds of local jobs and investment and Stream is committed to being a good neighbour to the local community.”

The company said the proposed development will be smaller in scale than the factory and be screened by over 1,300 trees along with other native planting.

It adds that all potentially noise generating equipment will be enclosured, materials will be handled in contained buildings and sealed tanks served by a robust odour control system meaning “there will be no air quality or odour impacts.”

On pollution concerns, as parts of the application site has had a history of flooding, Stream Bioenergy says: “Operational areas of the site will have an engineered containment system comprising impermeable surfaces and bunds to prevent any potential release or pollution risk to groundwater.”

They add: “A number of robust safety systems have been incorporated into the design of the plant to mitigate explosion risk.”

Stream is also proposing to offer an annual community benefit fund of up to £20,000 per annum for local projects.