The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
A group campaigning against a farm’s wish to build an anaerobic digester plant remains unhappy despite amended plans designed to reduce its visual impact.
Keep Tongue End Clean is opposed to Deeping St Nicholas firm WD Branton’s planning application for the land south of Counter Drain Drove in Tongue End.
The plant uses feedstock – in this case 43,250 tonnes of maize, hybrid rye and sugar beet pulp annually – to produce renewable energy and a biofertiliser.
The campaign group said in the summer that it was concerned by transport movements and “the sheer size” of silage clamps 100 metres long and four metres tall and seven storage tanks 11 metres high. These were to be 330m from the closest residents.
In amended plans lodged last month, the applicant has replaced four storage tanks with lagoons and is proposing two offsite satellite lagoon/tank locations, these being on land it owns at Deeping Fen Farm (about 3km away) and south of North Drove (about 2.7km away).
An amended traffic and transportation statement accompanying the planning application says: “These changes have been made in an effort to significantly reduce the overall visual impact of the site from its previous design.”
It adds: “The satellite locations and access routes selected have been chosen in order to minimise impacts to the local road network.”
It also says the transportation will be in 15 cubic metre trailers – half the size previously stated.
A partner in the firm, Andrew Branton, said: “In the amended plans we’ve tried to address concerns as far as is possible. We’re never going to please everybody.”
Helen Eve, secretary of the campaign group, claimed the amended plans would lead to an increase in traffic movements and there were a lot of “contradictions and questions unanswered”.
She said residents’ concern over odour was not allayed by the latest plans still stating that a significant amount of pulp will be left uncovered.
A public meeting held by the group recently was attended by about 40 people.
