Gas plant on Wiltshire border with Gloucestershire refused
Planners raised concerns about lorry movements and north Wiltshire becoming a magnet for avian waste
A power plant that would have seen chicken poo 15,000 tonnes of chicken poo transported across Gloucestershire to the Wiltshire border to be used as fuel has been turned down by planners.
During a heated four-hour meeting, members of Wiltshire Council’s strategic planning authority raised concerns about the chicken litter, which one said could make north Wiltshire a magnet for avian waste.
But it was wider concerns about lorry movements – and fears that Gloucestershire County Council had not been adequately consulted – that led to the committee voting down the application four votes to seven.
Three months ago, the same committee adjourned a decision on plans to build an anaerobic digestion plant in the middle of the Cotswold Water Park because they didn’t think Gloucester highways chiefs had been adequately consulted.
The application site is on the “last field in Wiltshire” before the Gloucestershire border, and Gloucestershire roads would carry an estimated 70 per cent of the traffic going to and from the facility.
Applicant Acorn Bioenergy said the plant would process up to 91,000 tonnes of agricultural feedstock per year, mostly sourced from farms in a ten-mile radius.
It would generate around 10 million m³ of renewable biomethane annually, which would be transported by tankers to the applicant’s gas injection hub at Banbury.
The process would also produce natural digestate fertiliser for use on local farmland and food-grade CO₂ for commercial distribution.
The debating chamber was packed with farmers who supported the plans.
Liz Webster, a local farmer and founder of the UK-wide pressure group Save British Farming, said the facility would give struggling farmers “continuity of markets,” adding “the Cotswolds without farming would cease to be the Cotswolds people come to enjoy.”
Standing against her were Gloucestershire Highways, Cotswold District Council, and the parish councils of South Cerney and Somerford Keynes, both in Gloucestershire, and the Wiltshire parish of Ashton Keynes, within whose boundary the plant would be built.
Objectors also had the backing of South Cotswolds MP Roz Savage, who wrote that the harms of the development would outweigh the benefits.
The committee also heard objections from 41 businesses that employ hundreds of local people and cater for a million visitors a year to the Cotswold Water Park.
The committee was told that the application had received 1,850 objections and 62 letters of support – “a very high level of public interest.”
But applicant Daniel Lambert said there had been a “concerted campaign led by a small number of people, attracting templated objections,” which had spread disinformation and fostered fear.
Matthew Jopp, principal highways development management officer at Gloucestershire County Council, said his department was concerned about the lack of a transport plan. He said the authority was concerned for the safety of walkers, cyclists, and horse riders on the roads around the site.
The applicant said lorry movements would average out at 35 to 40 lorry movements a day. Protestors said during harvest times – which coincide with the peak tourism months – it could be 160.
Mike McKeown, cabinet member for climate change at Cotswold District Council and ward member for Somerford Keynes said the proposed development was “the wrong plant in the wrong place.”
Philip Nicholas, chairman of South Cerney Parish Council, said: “There are better sites closer to Wye Valley chicken sheds and the (applicant’s) gas grid connection. It’s difficult to think of a worse site for a plant of this scale.”
Juliet Layton, ward councillor for South Cerney and deputy leader of Cotswold District Council, said: “The benefits are overstated, speculative and unquantified, while the harms are substantial, evidenced and enduring.”
Chuck Berry, Wiltshire Council ward representative for Minety, called the proposal a “substantial industrial facility” which would process “91,000 tonnes of feedstock a year.”
“Every tonne must reach the site by road. Digestate and biogas must leave the site by road,” he said. “You’d be mad to say yes.”
Of the strategic planning committee, Nick Baker (Laverstock, Lib Dem) said: “We are aware of the environmental disaster that is happening in the Wye Valley at the moment due to chicken waste.”
He said a planning condition needed to be imposed so that “we don’t end up turning the Cotswolds national park into something purely producing the almost unlimited amount of chicken manure created in the Wye Valley.”
Howard Greenman (Kington, Conservative) said: “Seventy per cent of road network is in Gloucestershire. There is a disparity between how Gloucestershire Highways sees this and how Wiltshire Highways sees it.
“There are still too many unanswered questions. They’ve had three months to sort this out and haven’t.”
Committee chairman Ernie Clarke (Hilperton, Independent) agreed: “It doesn’t appear that there has been the discussion between the two councils that this committee would expect.”
Cllr Greenman moved to refuse the application on the grounds of the effect of the plant on the landscape and lack of highways data.
Chris Brautigam (Southwick, Reform) expressed a concern about spills into the lakes. “There is a risk to the Water Park from pollution,” he said. “These are a jewel in Wiltshire’s tourism crown. Even a small risk is a risk too far.”
But Stewart Palmén (Trowbridge Central, Lib Dem) said: “I don’t believe this will have a negative effect on the area. Our county needs new industry.”
And he warned: “The applicant will be appealing this decision, and I believe they will win.”
The committee voted by seven votes to four to reject the application.