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Waste firm has new eco-power plant plan

1:00pm Monday 30th January 2012 in Abingdon By Ben Wilkinson

Villagers are digesting fresh plans from a waste firm to build an eco-power plant at Sutton Courtenay.

Waste Recycling Group (WRG) has submitted the application after its bid for a £20m waste treatment plant at its landfill site off Appleford Road was rejected last year.

This week the company said it would not appeal against the block by Oxfordshire County Council last September.

The new proposal is for an anaerobic digestion facility which will use maize crops to create renewable energy to power machinery and office appliances on the landfill site.

Any remaining electricity will be sold into the national grid. But opponents fear the development could lead to greater industrialisation of the area.

David McKenzie, 68, Churchmere Road, Sutton Courtenay, said: “It is a much better option than anything else they have put forward. But we cannot be sure if they get this planning permission that it will stay as it is.”

WGG held an exhibition of its plans in November and Vale of White Horse District Council hopes to make a decision on the bid in March.

Dr Pauline Wilson, of Milton Road, added: “If they get permission for this, is that going to be the first step in through the door?

“It is about thinking what is best for the community rather than what is best for business.”

Gervase Duffield, Vale of White Horse District Council member for Sutton Courtenay and Appleford, said: “This will not be the end of it whatever the outcome is. None of us want to spend our time waging permanent war with our industrial neighbours.

“Whether we like it or not we are neighbours and we are trying to restore a better relationship.”

WRG spokesman Sophie Hadden said the plant would be a small-scale development and not generate smells.

She added: “WRG is committed to being a good neighbour and working in conjunction with the villages around the site.”

Comments(5)

Ceasar says...
5:34pm Mon 30 Jan 12

Why would a waste company want to use maize ? Is it a waste product ? No, but food waste is, how long before it is fed with that ?
If Sutton Courtenay end up with an Anerobic Digestor they will soon wish they had settled for an Incinerator.

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Megs says...
5:35pm Mon 30 Jan 12

On a substantive point, there is absolutely no need for the proposed increase in the scale of industrialisation in the countryside here, on land destined for return to agriculture. Dressing up an industrial plant as somehow being rural because it processes maize will not do. Villagers are well to be wary.
As for neighbourliness, Sophie Hadden says it all. There will be no smell. Villagers are ever so, ever so, grateful m'lady (tug forelock) although, if it's all the same to you, we'd like you to deal with the existing pongs from your operations. AND WRG are now commited to being a good neighbour WOW! but can Ms Hadden explain how this state of bliss is to be achieved since the company have failed miserably in its attempts to date?

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callum1 says...
8:27pm Mon 30 Jan 12

Good point Ceasar - the plant may very well not generate smells but what will undoubtedly be very smelly is the spreading of the digestate onto surrounding farmland. Maybe the mingling of the digestate aroma and the delectable whiff of the composting will produce a new fragrance marketable by Chanel as Eau de Colon N07 - WRG's reputation stinks about as much as their activities.

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caro12 says...
9:57am Tue 31 Jan 12

Once operators obtain planning permission and an EA license for an AD plant, in many cases they are then able to change the feedstock to include much more malodorous food waste by simply applying to change the terms of their License. This is not a public process and residents can find themselves with a real problem without ever being consulted. The financial incentive to process food waste is tremendous £45- £50 a tonne instead od £25 - £30 per tonne depending where you live in the country.
Regardless of the feedstack, AD plants, like in-vessel composters, are supposed to be a sealed process and cause no odours. However, large-scale IVC plants have a more established track record and you only have to do a quick net search to find serious odour and fly problems at many of these sites.

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Arosemay says...
10:41pm Wed 1 Feb 12

I grew up in Sutton Courtenay and the smell from the tip is horrendous especially during the summer. My folks still live there and the swarms of flies last summer were of practically biblical proportions - it was truly vile! Why anyone in that area would not object to further plans proposed by WRG is beyond me. Eventually this company is eroding what is or should be a beautifully picturesque piece of Oxfordshire.

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