Chicken waste biogas plant approved for outskirts of village despite strong local opposition
Plans for a plant which would convert chicken waste into gas have been approved despite strong public opposition and against officers’ advice.
Stream BioEnergy UK Ltd has been granted permission to build a biogas plant on land west of the Moy Park facility, south of the A153 in Anwick, near Sleaford.
The plant will turn 120,000 tonnes of chicken waste and waste feedstock into renewable gas each year.
The county council said that 447 public objections had been made against the application, with many residents raising concerns about how it would look, potential smells, extra lorries and harming the heritage of the area.
Planning officers recommended councillors refuse it at a meeting on Monday, September 7, on the basis there would be ‘substantial harm to heritage assets’ in the area.
But the planning committee ruled that the ‘public benefits’ would outweigh the disadvantages of the application, pointing to the extra jobs and benefits to the local economy.
Speaking after the meeting, committee chairman Thomas Sneath (Reform UK – Holbeach) said: “We have to remember that we are all residents of a village or a town – and anything that comes to a committee, we are all personally indebted to the residents.
“Because we have to imagine ourselves being there any decision is quite difficult and I think this one in particular was a very difficult decision for how we place that weight.”
Coun Sneath said despite strong public opposition for the facility, the committee overwhelmingly felt the benefits to the area outweighed the risks.
He added: “The substantial weight that was given wasn’t felt to be there for the heritage and therefore economical benefits did outweigh that marginally – and that’s how we came to the conclusion of ‘this would be a benefit to the area.'”
After the meeting, Coun Martin Hill (Conservative – Folkingham Rural) said he understood that many residents would be frustrated by the decision.
He added: “Any development has positives and negatives and you always have sympathy for the residents who live next door to any development.
“But as a planning committee, we’ve got to have valid reasons why we should refuse.”
He added that the benefits including the ‘extra jobs’ and the ‘support’ for local farmers outweighed the disadvantages of the application.
He said: “It wouldn’t have been safe to refuse the application because there’s always the risk that the applicant will then go to appeal and the council could lose.”
But during the meeting, Coun Marianne Overton (Independent –Bassingham and Welbourn) voiced concerns about the impact on the local area.
She said: “This is a huge application and I think the fact that we’ve had two site visits actually demonstrates that.
“The point is that it is a very large industrial development in what is currently open countryside as you’ve just heard is designated for residential use.”
After the meeting, Anwick resident Lorraine Curtis, 69, said the decision to approve the application was ‘disgusting’.
She added: “The cumulative effect of the emissions from this facility will completely overwhelm the village.
“They talk about the heritage aspect of things, they talk about the landscape, they talk about the countryside.
“Not one of those people in there mentioned the health and wellbeing of the people that live in the village.”
The application included two 40-metre tall stacks and eight 25-metres-tall digester tanks, where organic material will be broken down into gas and pumped into the National Grid.
The applicant had come under fire from local residents who argued it would amount to the ‘industrialisation of the countryside’ – with many raising concerns about the potential noise, increased traffic onto the A153 and unpleasant smells.
But the developer says it will provide renewable energy and has denied concerns it will lead to additional noise and smells, saying it would employ “a state-of-the-art development with a robust multi-stage odour control system”.
The developer said 36 heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) will enter and exit the site on a daily basis.
Access to the site will be via the A153 and the applicant will make improvements to the road and install a right-turning lane for the HGVs to access the site.
The facility will operate on a 24/7 basis, with deliveries to the plant taking place between 7am and 7pm.